Meloni, Wilders and Europe’s Ascendant Far Right
The winds of populism are growing stronger in the EU.
Geert Wilders.
Photographer: Anadolu/AnadoluIt’s been three weeks since the rabidly anti-Muslim Geert Wilders won elections in the Netherlands, and he still hasn’t been able to corral potential allies into coalition negotiations. As the experience of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shows, the pressure to compromise will probably act to temper his most extreme instincts. But that’s small comfort in the European Union, where the right’s momentum shows little sign of slowing.
It will probably only help that Meloni, 47, could have a potential foil among the EU’s original six that can cast her as a relative moderate, having taken a pro-NATO foreign-policy position on Ukraine and withdrawn from China’s Belt and Road initiative.