Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left Podcast.

The European elections could have been worse, but they weren't great.

Shifting politics among mainstream parties is legitimizing far right politics at the same time as people's concerns over immigration is being reflected in a willingness to vote for far right parties.

Sources providing our top takes today include Democracy

Now, UnFing the Republic, the Brian Laird Show, Beyond Business, The Mockrake political

podcast, Al Jazeera, and Pod Save the World.

Then in the additional deeper dive half of the show, there will be more on the

EU structure and election results, immigration and the culture war, and the

playbook and messaging of the far right.

In Europe, residents of 27 countries went to the polls this weekend for the European Union's

parliamentary elections, with nearly 400 million eligible voters, the EU elections are among the

world's biggest Democratic polls which are held every five years. This year's

results ended in a strong showing for the far right across much of the European Union, while

many liberals and green parties stumbled.

Most of the far right gains were concentrated in countries that elect large

number of seats to the EU Parliament, France, Italy, and Germany.

Incoming lawmakers can veto and shape laws, though they cannot introduce them.

They also set the EU's budget and approve the selection of the European Commission President, a powerful role currently held by Ursula von der Leyen

of the center-right European People's Party.

And despite the far-right surge across much of the EU, The European People's Party was the biggest

single winner on Sunday remaining the strongest group in the European

Parliament. On Monday, EU Chief Ursula von deren, spoke in Berlin about the vote.

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