Reference News Network reported on May 22 that the Financial Times website published an article titled "Three Elections, One Message: Europe's Populists Are on the Rise" on May 20. The author is Ben Hall et al. The content is compiled as follows:

On May 18, a pro-European Union centrist candidate won the Romanian presidential election, which brought relief to European leaders.

But this election and the elections held in Poland and Portugal at the weekend highlighted the gathering strength of populist movements across Europe and their increasing proximity to seizing power or regaining it.

EU leaders praised Nicos Hiora, a reformist mayor of Bucharest who was originally trailing by a significant margin in the first round but eventually defeated the extreme nationalist George Simion to win Romania's presidential election.

However, Simion still garnered 46% of the votes, and his parliamentary coalition, the second largest party - the Alliance for United Romanians - is likely to benefit from expected government instability and the austerity measures needed to control the growing public deficit. Simion calls himself "Trump's candidate," and he vowed to lead Romania on a Eurosceptic anti-Ukraine path consistent with Viktor Orban, Hungary's prime minister.

"We won this time, but what about next time?" said Dimitar Bechev, an expert at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Europe Center. "There may be many undecided voters. Due to public dissatisfaction, Simion will become even stronger."

Until recently, Portugal was one of the few European countries without a far-right movement. After the parliamentary election on May 18, the anti-immigrant "Enough" party might rank second after overseas vote counting.

The previous center-right Prime Minister Luis Monteiro had previously ruled out cooperation with the "Enough" party. However, on May 19, he avoided the issue and said, "Everyone must be able to participate in dialogue and place national interests above all else."

In Poland, pro-European Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski narrowly defeated nationalist candidate Karol Nawrocki in the first round of the presidential election on May 18. They will face off in a fierce runoff on June 1.

These three elections show that there is an anti-establishment sentiment among voters. This is most evident in Romania. At the beginning of this month, the joint candidates of the center-left and center-right ruling parties only won one-fifth of the votes in the first round of the election.

In Poland, Trzaskowski and Nawrocki together won 61% of the votes, which is the lowest combined total for the two main parties - Tusk's Civic Platform and the opposition Law and Justice Party.

"This is clearly a yellow card for Tusk and Trzaskowski from voters, as they failed to deliver on their promises made in 2023. We also see that the long-standing dual monopoly in Poland is facing strong challenges," said Marcin Duma, CEO of market research institute Ipsos Poland.

These three elections also indicate that new right-wing forces are rapidly rising. The "Enough" party in Portugal, led by Andre Ventura, achieved a breakthrough just three years ago when it won 7% of the votes in parliamentary elections. Siomion founded the Alliance for United Romanians five years ago.

The most notable point in Poland's presidential election was the strength of the two far-right candidates - Sławomir Mentzen received 15% of the votes, and Grzegorz Braun received 6%.

The three votes on May 18 indicate that the political center has shifted to the right, and voters are increasingly rejecting the left. Trzaskowski himself is a moderate conservative and won 53% of the votes, more than all his right-wing rivals combined.

Trzaskowski began leaning further to the right during his campaign, particularly emphasizing his call to cut benefits for Ukrainian refugees while abandoning some of the statements he supported as Warsaw mayor regarding the rights of sexual minorities. This shift may have cost him support on May 18.

In Romania, although Hiora may be a reformer, he is conservative on social issues. He left the party he founded due to his opposition to same-sex marriage.

The Socialists' share of the vote fell to its lowest level since 1987. For the first time since Portugal returned to democracy, center-right parties now control two-thirds of parliament. If they can cooperate, they will have an opportunity to reform Portugal's constitution, which was born in the era of leftist ascendancy and gives too much power to the state and too little to the private sector, according to right-wingers. (Compiled by Wang Diqing)

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7507264544026903066/

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