Social democratic parties are suffering an almost total wipeout, as rightwing nationalism flourishes on the EU’s eastern flank
P
éter Magyar’s historic defeat of Viktor Orbán in Hungary’s recent election was rightly celebrated in progressive circles and beyond. For the global far right, which has been steadily gaining power and influence for over a decade, this was a significant reverse. But it was no victory for the left. A former member of Mr Orbán’s Fidesz party, Mr Magyar will lead a centre‑right conservative government in a parliament where the only opposition will come from Fidesz and a small party with neo-Nazi roots.
Across the rest of central Europe, it is much the same story. Bulgaria last week elected a nationalist, Moscow‑friendly prime minister, Rumen Radev, who will take a draconian line on migration and is a fierce critic of the European Union’s green deal. The country’s Socialist party, a presence in parliament since 1989, failed to win a single seat.
In the Czech Republic, the Social Democratic party – a former political powerhouse – has been completely wiped out in two successive elections, and the current prime minister, Andrej Babiš, is taking the country down a Trump-style “Czechia First” route. In Slovenia, another Trump admirer is on the brink of becoming the next prime minister. The rightwing populist views of Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, have led to the expulsion of his party from the EU umbrella group of social democratic parties. And in Poland, where the far-right Law and Justice party was finally ousted from power in 2023, the progressive left scored less than 10% in the polls.
