Hello and welcome to the Centre for European Reform podcast.

I'm Octavia Hughes, host of today's episode.

This week, Europeans are taking

to the polls. More than 370 million people across the 27 member states will be eligible to vote

for the next European Parliament. Since the last elections in 2019, we've witnessed the effects

of COVID-19, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, war in the Middle East,

and renewed worries about immigration. So where will we be after the 9th of June?

With me to discuss the elections is the CERR's Clara Marina Adonnell Fellow,

Christina Kessler, and Senior Research Fellows, Luigi Scatsieri, and Sheikha Chaki.

Shekker, welcome to your first CER podcast. Much of the media's coverage of these elections

has focused on the surge in popularity of the far rights. Is this an accurate reflection

of what we can expect to see in these election results? And how much is this a part of a longer

term trend in Europe? First and foremost, lovely to be here. Thank you,

Octavia. And so, yes, on the one hand, every poll shows gains for far-right parties. Their

share is expected to grow from around 18% where we are right now to around 25, as much as you can

trust these polls, which are aggregate. But perhaps as important as that,

mainstream or centrist parties are projected to decline from around 80% a decade or so ago to

above 60%. So even if there is no far-right breakthrough or a large far-right group in the

parliament after the elections, this will impact policy and politics.

On the other hand, I shall add that some far-right parties are going through trouble at the

European stage. Those following the news have surely seen the high-profile breakup between

DFD and its allies, primarily France's RN, which demonstrates the main issue for hard-right parties, that they

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