Supporters wave the national flag of France during a campaign meeting of France’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party’s President and lead European Parliament election candidate Jordan Bardella and President of the French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) parliamentary group Marine Le Pen, ahead of the upcoming European Union (EU) parliamentary elections, in Henin-Beaumont, northern France, on May 24, 2024.
Francois Lo Presti | Afp | Getty Images
LONDON — A somewhat strange and ironic political shift has gripped Europe over the last few years.
In the formerly Brexiting, euroskeptic U.K., the pendulum has just swung back to the center-left Labour Party, which is set to come to power after a mammoth election win, ending 14 years of Conservative Party rule.
A different picture is playing out in much of western Europe — and in countries that disdained Brexit and the U.K.’s populist trend in recent years over the last decade or so. These states are now seeing their own electorates shift to the right, with nationalist, populist and euroskeptic parties riding high in voter polls and entering the corridors of power.
While the U.K. and mainland Europe are heading in different directions politically, analysts say that the driving force behind changing patterns at the polls is fundamentally the same: voters are desperate for change.
“There’s an anti-incumbency mood again in Europe,” Dan Stevens, professor of politics at Exeter University, told CNBC. No matter who the incumbent is, Stevens said, “there’s just a general dissatisfaction and want for change.”
Tapping into the zeitgeist among British voters, the U.K.’s Labour Party used “change” as its rallying cry for voters ahead of Thursday’s general election, which it won a landslide, early indications showed Friday morning.
The shift to the left comes after a tumultuous period in British politics during the last series of Conservative governments, with immigration concerns and euroskepticism culminating in the…
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