The Rise and Rise of Europe's Nationalists

2023 and Beyond

The late 2010s were not great times for national populists in Europe. Brexit took years to accomplish and did not result in reduced legal immigration. National-populist parties lost important elections in countries like France, Germany, and Slovenia. They made political errors in countries like the Netherlands and Italy that forced them out of power.

The explosive energy from national populist candidates and parties we saw earlier in that decade was all but over.

That all changed last year.

In 2022, Portugal’s Chega Party increased its legislative seats from one to 11. Viktor Orbán gained a more significant majority in Hungary. Le Pen not only made it to the second round of the presidential election for the third time, but her party, the National Rally (NR), surpassed the center-right Union Party in the legislature, increasing their seats from eight to 89. NR is large enough to form its caucus in the parliament, allowing them special privileges and powers.

Most importantly, Georgia Meloni became the first national-populist leader of a Western country when her party won the Italian elections in September.

This year saw a further expansion of the national populist right’s victories.