Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Right-Wing Populists Are Running Out of Time

Trump's supporters resemble those of losing Austrian presidential candidate Norbert Hofer. But they are a dwindling number.

May 26, 2016 at 1:32 PM UTC

By Leonid Bershidsky

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Hard sell.
Photographer: Dominick REUTER/AFP/Getty Images

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Politics are so different in Europe and in the U.S. that analogies usually look contrived. Yet the demographics of those who support right-wing populists are strikingly similar on both sides of the Atlantic. And these demographics are likely to be the reason why the populist right, which appears to be on the rise, is actually peaking. If it doesn't win any major electoral victories in the next few years, it will have to slink off to the fringe.

Last Sunday, Norbert Hofer of the anti-immigrant Freedom Party lost the Austrian presidential election despite winning the first round and leading in the polls up to election day. He ran again a generic progressive candidate, Alexander van der Bellen, who was technically and independent but was backed by the Green Party. By election day, he was also running against everyone else who didn't want the far right, Hofer rejects, to win. The demographics of his voters in the run-off with van der Bellen are similar to those of Donald Trump's in the race against Hillary Clinton: