As yesterday’s European election results came in, media coverage began to take on a distinct sense of dread. “A far right surge upends national politics,” blared one CNN headline. “Far right gains deal stunning defeats to France’s Macron and Germany’s Scholz,” declared PBS. A New York Times title sought to strike a relatively optimistic tone, finding solace in the fact that “In E.U. Elections, the Center Holds” — but, it noted glumly, “the Far Right Still Wreaks Havoc.”
Indeed, the suite of nationalist, anti-immigration parties that the media consistently insists on describing as “far right” made gains that were “even more stunning than many analysts predicted,” CBS noted. While the nationalists did not muster enough votes to wrest control of the European Union from the body’s current center-right majority, its substantial gains were yet another sign of surging popular momentum for a coalition that was regarded as fringe and marginal just a few years ago — particularly in a number of the E.U.’s most powerful and influential nations.
