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Why Europe’s nationalist parties all sound alike

Nationalist parties in the European Union are gaining momentum. At a time when the EU is increasingly fractured, they are united on many issues. What are they?

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Three European politicians. They speak different languages but they’re all singing the same tune.

And that’s weird because one belief that unites these nationalist populist European leaders is that the European Union should be less united. Since the euro crisis of 2009 and the migrant crisis of 2015 these right-wing populist movements have grown in strength and in number.

His campaign against Muslim refugees won his party two-thirds of the seats in Hungary’s general election in 2018. Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party doesn’t sound all that different.

Every European country has its own version. Tomio Okamura is a Czech-nationalist politician born in Japan who wants a zero-tolerance policy on immigration. It’s not clear what this means but it plays into European fears of what they call an invasion. In other words… immigration.

They all accuse Brussels of behaving like a dictatorship. Which is ironic given that they’re all running in democratic elections for the EU parliament. They often speak of a supposed plot by mainstream leaders like Angela Merkel to replace Europeans with lower-paid migrants.

And they tend not to like feminism, Or gay rights. They may say some provocative or even hateful things but their language and ideas are consistent all across Europe.

And they’re clearly effective.

Pollsters predict that these eurosceptic parties will see a significant rise in votes in the European election. Ironically, it’s the Eurosceptic parties that seem to be doing the best job building pan-European politics.

The question is whether the parties that believe in a stronger Europe can do the same thing?

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