Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) party won a record 32 per cent of the vote in last weekend’s French legislative elections, doubling the share it secured two years ago and securing 143 seats in parliament. While it lost out to the leftist and centrist coalitions, its place as the largest single party now in the legislature is nonetheless emblematic of the ongoing rise of the populist right across continental Europe.
By contrast, for all the talk of a Reform UK “surge” — and speculation that Nigel Farage’s party might overtake the Conservatives — it ended up with 14 per cent of the vote in the UK’s general election. This was only a marginal improvement over its predecessor Ukip’s 13 per cent in the 2015 general election, and with fewer top-two finishes at the constituency level than Ukip had then.
Evidently British voters stand alone as bastions of sanity and moderation against the dark forces sweeping the continent. Or do we?