Cost of living crisis is reshaping EU politics as migration and climate lose steam

First published in Respekt.

Irregular migration and climate change are receding into the background.

Decades after the financial crisis, developments in the European Union were dominated first by the issue of uncontrolled migration and later by climate change. Both dominant topics substantially reshaped not only the political forces within the bloc. They shaped the most fundamental EU policies, determined the character of public space and brought new political forces to power.

The fight against people fleeing from the Middle East, Asia and Africa gave rise to a number of nationalist parties across the old continent – in the Czech Republic, Tomio Okamura and his Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) capitalised on the topic, in Italy it was Matteo Salvini’s Northern League (Lega Nord), and in Germany the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Caution about environmental protection and the need to respond to climate change were used by parties from the other side of the spectrum, such as the German Greens, but also by French president Emmanuel Macron.