The first was the major EU enlargement of 2004, when 10 countries joined, swiftly followed three years later by Romania and Bulgaria. The effect on the richer, western countries of the EU was enormous: within a few years, millions had moved westwards from the former eastern bloc.
Then came the financial crash of 2008, which stagnated wages and ushered in austerity measures, which hurt already disadvantaged communities. Within a few years, the migrant crisis had begun, culminating in the mass movement of hundreds of thousands of people to Europe, predominantly from African and Asian countries. [...]
Immigration poses a challenge for both center-left and center-right parties, but it is a particular challenge for liberals, for whom openness to migration is part of their political DNA. But given the real economic realities of many center-left voting areas, the political parties have adapted, seeking to adopt versions of far-right positions on immigration and so neutralize it as a topic. Rather than stealing the clothes of the far-right, they merely steal the colors. [...]
The rise of a new far-right grouping within the EU’s parliament only tells part of the story, because their influence doesn’t lie merely in the ballot box. Until centrist parties can find answers to the very real dislocations and dispossessions of millions of Europeans, far-right parties will keep making the political weather – and keep forcing parties across the political spectrum to adapt to save themselves from the storm.
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