Who votes for the European far right? And why?

EU Confidential

POLITICO

Politics, News Commentary, News

4.4 • 175 Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2024

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As recent national elections in several European countries have shown, far-right voters no longer fit the stereotype of the angry, old white man, but now often include women, young people and even migrants. In this episode we unpack what drives voters to abandon the mainstream and more traditional party loyalties for the far right, and how poverty, or fear of it, motivates typical supporters of the AfD in Germany, Geert Wilder's PVV in the Netherlands, or Chega in Portugal. Host Sarah Wheaton is joined by POLITICO reporters Hanne Cokelaere, James Angelos and Aitor Hernandez-Morales, who were recently dispatched to countries where far-right parties are gaining ground ahead of June's European election. Later on we have a fascinating conversation with Catherine de Vries, professor of political science and dean of international affairs at Bocconi University in Milan. Her research focuses on how economic hardship and problems with public services such as schools, health care or transport can fuel the far right. Further reading: Germany’s far-right believers blame spy claims on ‘witch hunt’ by James Angelos Portugal’s far-right vaccine stops working in the Algarve by Victor Jack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs.
0:04.8	Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand.
0:12.5	Marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time.
0:17.5	From startups to scaleups, online, in person, and on the go.
0:22.0	Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you.
0:24.5	Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:30.2	So we've got these kind of stereotypes when we talk about far-right voters.
0:36.5	You've got the like brown shirt, angry, neo-Nazi skinhead type.
0:41.7	He's white. He's aggressive. He's angry. He's racist. He's a he.
0:47.2	Got the small town Catholic, driven by homophobia and climate denialism.
0:53.2	You have sort of the British intellectual in a bow tie and a
0:56.5	tweed jacket, talking about liberty and the decline of Western civilization at the hands of big
1:02.1	government. A lot of us think about these people when we think of the hard right. But here's a thing.
1:08.8	As we look at national elections and the lead up to the big European election coming in June, we're seeing that those stereotypes just don't cut it.
1:19.6	It turns out that the far right is drawing from a much more complex and diverse pool of voters.
1:25.6	So who really votes for the far right? And why? I'm Sarah Wheaton, host of
1:31.9	EU Confidential. The polls ahead of the European election in June suggest that the far right
1:36.8	surge could come with the help of young students, women, even immigrant voters. We've been
1:43.0	hitting the streets to talk to them about it, and they seem a bit
1:46.3	surprised about it themselves, but they say they're open to pitches from Portugal's Shiga,
1:51.1	Heard Wilder's PVV in the Netherlands, or Marine Le Pen's National Rally in France.
1:57.2	To get some perspective, we'll talk to political science professor Catherine DeVries.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from POLITICO, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of POLITICO and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.