European voters reject socialism, far-left policies in EU Parliament elections: ‘Political earthquake’

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The results of the European Parliament elections saw voters – in Germany and France, especially – largely reject socialism and left-wing policies. 

Experts who weighed in on the election told Fox News Digital the results should put President Biden’s administration on notice. Both European and American voters largely care about the same issues, namely mass migration and border security, they said, and the EU elections showed voters taking a stand against leftist agendas that have come to rise on both sides of the Atlantic. 

“Firstly, the elections were a political earthquake in Europe,” Dr. Nile Gardiner, director of conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, told Fox News Digital. “They were a massive rejection of open borders, mass migration, the far left, green agenda that is being pushed by many European governments. It was also a statement against a growing centralization also of the European Union. And it was an emphatic, euroskeptic, vote in many, many European countries. And so, voters across Europe rejected the ruling socialist or progressive liberal elites from Germany to France to Spain … to Belgium, to the Netherlands. And so this was one of the most significant electoral outcomes in recent European history.” 

“I think the Biden White House should be very nervous about what’s happening across the Atlantic because Europeans are voting on exactly the same issues American voters are voting on as well. The biggest single issue in Europe right now is mass migration and the lack of border security. It’s the number one issue in America,” Gardiner said. “What you saw in Europe is an effective rejection of liberal left-wing ruling elites, exemplified, of course, by the Biden White House. And so Biden is very similar to Chancellor Schultz in Germany, very similar to Emmanual Macron in France. Biden is a, you know, liberal, progressive, elitist, out of touch with the vast majority of ordinary people. And so, Joe Biden should be a very nervous man right now watching what’s happening in Europe.” 

GERMANY’S CONSERVATIVES FINISH FIRST IN EU ELECTION, AS FAR-RIGHT MOMENTUM SENDS FRANCE’S LEADER SCRAMBLING

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gives a speech to open the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11, 2024.  (JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images)

When looking at the European election results, Dr. Alan Mendoza, founder and executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital it was “indeed much more, say, a rejection of the left wing parties, versus should we say, you know, an enthusiastic rush to the far right.” He argued it’s actually the center right that’s holding the most in terms of positioning within the EU. 

Gardiner appeared to agree.

“I didn’t like the designation of far right. Because if you look at voter concerns in Europe, and you know, support for parties on the right and across the Atlantic, these are exactly the same concerns that U.S. voters have as well,” Gardiner said. “European voters who are rejecting open borders are rejecting the extreme green agenda, rejecting wokeism, they don’t want high crime. They don’t like the Islamification of Europe. You know, at the end of the day, the vast majority of Europeans who voted for parties on the right, they’re not extremists. They simply just want things changed at home. They don’t like, you know, the left wing socialist agenda.” 

In Germany, the governing coalition – Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats – fell into third place behind the main conservative bloc, which came out on top, and the country’s far-right party, Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which came in second place. 

“So what it shows you is that the left is falling and failing to provide answers for what European citizens are looking for. And I think the main area here is obviously, in terms of, you know, immigration. I think that’s such a big issue on the European continent these days that there has been sort of a loss of faith in what the left wing can provide,” Mendoza said. “I think the answer has been that … it is right wing parties that are going to provide these answers in the coming years.” 

French President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called a snap legislative election after his Renaissance party suffered a heavy defeat in the EU elections to the National Rally party of Marine Le Pen. That move was a gamble, Mendoza said, as the EU elections are seen more as a “protest vote” and now Macron is calling a national election supposing people think he is better for France versus Le Pen’s party. 

Marine Le Pen leaves the Rassemblement National (RN) party headquarters in Paris on June 10, 2024, after a meeting with Marion Marechal and Jordan Bardella, a day after the European Parliament elections. (Adnan Farzat/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

FRANCE’S MACRON CALLS SNAP LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS AFTER PARTY’S RESOUNDING DEFEAT IN EU VOTE

“Political changes in Europe can have a significant impact on America as well. You look at the Brexit vote in 2016, in the UK ahead of, you know, Donald Trump’s election victory that year. What happens in Europe does matter in America as well, because at the end of the day, European and American electorates are not vastly different in terms of what they care about,” Gardiner observed. “They overwhelmingly do not like, you know, the radical, you know, green agenda. And they don’t like, you know, wokeism and the left’s attempt to subvert Western culture and civilization.” 

Matt Mowers, a founding board member of the EU-US Forum, said the non-profit conducted a survey in May that found a majority of EU voters “do not think the EU headed in the right direction under its current left wing leadership.” The survey also found “that Europeans have serious concerns about illegal immigration, skyrocketing cost of living, increased government censorship, and excessive regulations,” he said. 

“The EU election results prove our data was right on the money,” Mowers, who served in former President Trump’s administration, told Fox News Digital. “Europeans are tired of the status quo at the EU. Voters have sent a decisive message to the globalist elites in Brussels: Europeans do not want the far-Left agenda pushed on them for decades. Change is coming.”

Demonstrators take part in an “antifascist rally” following the European election results, in Toulouse on June 10, 2024. President Emmanuel Macron said he was confident French voters would make the “right choice” in snap elections he called after the far right crushed his centrist alliance in Sunday’s EU ballot.  (ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)

“Europe is waking up and wants change at the EU,” he added. “Voters decisively rejected the far-left ideology at the EU in the recent European parliamentary elections. This should frighten the American left and put them on notice. In November, American voters will also reject the push for open borders, reckless spending, and unfettered regulation that leftists have been pushing in the US.”

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“The right wing has risen across Europe, after years of left wing rule,” Thomas Corbet-Dillon, a former adviser to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, told Fox News Digital. “President Macron suspended parliament in a panic after the majority of France voted for so-called ‘far right’ parties, in a clear rebuff to his leftist agenda of uncontrolled immigration.” 

“In the UK, we see Nigel Farage leading the charge against the Conservative Party and Geert Wilders is leading the fight in the Netherlands,” Corbet-Dillon added. Though, notably, the United Kingdom left the EU. 

“The right wing is rising across Europe and today has shown they have the support of the people,” he said. “The left wing media continue to refer to the true conservative movement as far right, when in reality, everyday men and women who are patriots and believe in a future for their nation keep getting labeled far right. The current governments in Europe should be labeled far left for what they have allowed to happen to Europe.” 

Fox News’ Ben Evansky contributed to this report. 

Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics, crime, police and more. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on Twitter: @danimwallace.