Although some European far-right parties may well be moving further and further to the left in their speech, they largely continue to vote right-wing on socio-economic issues, according to the latest study that the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) published on Thursday, 29 August.
Despite the overall heterogeneity of the two far-right political groups in the European Parliament—Identity and Democracy (ID) and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)—during the 2019–2024 term, the far right remains clearly opposed to workers’ rights. The vast majority of far-right parties, 18 out of 22, voted against socio-economic initiatives at the European level.
Although far-right members of the European Parliament (MEPs) largely vote homogeneously within their party, the ETUI found considerable heterogeneity on key socio-economic issues within ID and the ECR—on the issues of minimum corporate taxation for multinational companies (see EUROPE 13467/8) and adequate minimum wages (see EUROPE 12973/7) in particular.
While regional differences are relatively small, far-right parties in northern Europe are particularly inclined to vote right-wing on socio-economic issues. According to the ETUI, poor voting discipline within both ID and the ECR indicates that socio-economic issues are not at the centre of either group’s concerns.
Co-authors of this comparative analysis of eight votes, Gabriela Greilinger and Cas Mudde from the University of Georgia (United States) emphasised, “[W]hile the far right might increasingly talk left-wing on socio-economic issues, it still mostly votes right-wing on them”.
Read the study: https://aeur.eu/f/d97 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)