The EU level effects of national elections in the Netherlands and France

Krouwel, A. (Speaker)

Activity: Lecture / Presentation › Academic

Description

The Netherlands and France, despite their affluence and long-standing democratic traditions, are experiencing a major political shift which manifests in a rapid decline of the established Social Democratic (left) and Christian Democratic (right) parties and rise of anti-European and anti-democratic populist political forces. Although the two countries are not the only ones faced with such political upheaval, the two are part of the EU’s core and, hence, the demise of the established pro-European political forces in the two countries begets questions about the survival of the EU itself.

This statement best summarises the debate: “If you believe that European project is worth fighting for, if you think that our prosperity depends on moderate voters that understand that you cannot change things over night, if you understand that by adding more institutions to the EU will not solve the problem, you better get working, because the moderates are loosing, but populists – winning!”

Period	10 May 2017
Held at	Latvian Institute of International Affairs, Latvia
Degree of Recognition	International

Documents & Links

The Netherlands and France, despite their affluence and long-standing democratic traditions, are experiencing a major political shift which manifests in a rapid decline of the established Social Democratic (left) and Christian Democratic (right) parties and rise of anti-European and anti-democratic populist political forces. Although the two countries are not the only ones faced with such political upheaval, the two are part of the EU’s core and, hence, the demise of the established pro-European political forces in the two countries begets questions about the survival of the EU itself. This statement best summarises the debate: “If you believe that European project is worth fighting for, if you think that our prosperity depends on moderate voters that understand that you cannot change things over night, if you understand that by adding more institutions to the EU will not solve the problem, you better get working, because the moderates are loosing, but populists – winning!”