Finland, Greece, Germany, Spain
At least four recent elections in Europe evidence a strong trend to the conservative right.
The first big shift came on April 2 and got little public attention in the leftist media that dominates the US, the UK, and most of Western Europe. Finland elected its most conservative government in its history. Nine Finnish political parties qualified for the final parliamentary election. A majority coalition of 101 of 200 seats is necessary to govern the nation. Finnish leader of the conservative National Coalition Party, Petteri Orpo, became Prime Minister with 21 percent, winning 48 seats and gaining the alliance of three coalition partners totaling 60 seats for a 108 seat majority. Second place in the parliamentary elections, finishing close behind with 20 percent was the Finns Party (formerly the True Finns Party), winning 46 seats. The Finns Party, led by Rikka Purra, is even more conservative than the National Coalition Party, especially on immigration and national sovereignty issues. The Swedish People’s Party of Finland, an ethnic minority party with 9 seats, and the Christian Democrats with 5 seats made up the balance. I find it somewhat of a reversal of rampant Scandinavian feminism that Orpo was one of only two men of the nine party leaders vying for the office of prime minister.
Defeated was the darling of globalist liberalism, Prime Minister Sanna Marin and her Social Democrat Party, winning 43 seats and slightly less than 18 percent of the vote. Marin and the SDP actually gained 3 seats from the last election. Her defeat resulted from the strong surge of the two most conservative parties, the National Coalition and the Finns, and the poor performance of the smaller Center, Greens, and Left Alliance parties, losing a total of 20 seats. It was obvious that immigration was a major issue. It might also reflect a public concern about Finland’s joining NATO and some loss of national sovereignty by doing so. Finland does considerable trade with the Russian Federation and NATO and European sanctions may be having an undesirable economic impact on Finland.
The June 25 Greek parliamentary elections brought in the most conservative Greek government since 1974. Prime Minister Kyriakos Misotakis, of the conservative New Democracy Party, won 158 of 300 seats and appears to be headed in an even more conservative direction. This was an increase of 12 seats from four years ago. Eight Greek parties had made the 2023 three-percent primary election cutoff to compete in the final election. New Democracy got 40 percent of the vote against the main leftist competition, the Syriza Party with a devastating count of only 17 percent, dropping 24 seats from 2019 to 47 seats in 2023. Moreover, three right-wing parties surged to a total of another 32 seats. The Spartans were new to the runoff but picked up 12 seats. The right to far-right Greek Solution maintained 12 of its 16 seats, and the new NIKI (Patriotic Victory Party) earned 10 seats. NIKI is a pro-religious and family values party and is anti-abortion.
The victory of New Democracy and Prime Minister Misotakis was undoubtedly influenced by strong economic results in the last four years, making Greece one of the best performing economies in Europe compared to the absolute disasters of leftist leadership in the past. Leftist economics and social policies are beginning to disappear in Greece. However, they still have 21 Communists in Parliament, who received 7.2 percent of the vote. There seems to be a lead of about 14 percent for conservative parties over left and center-left parties in the 2023 Greek Election. In addition to economics, immigration and family values had a strong influence on Greek voting. The Greeks also seem to be concerned with NATO and European Union policies that threaten their sovereignty. The Greeks are Orthodox in religion and feel some affinity with Russia in that regard. The Greeks are undoubtedly being hurt by NATO and EU sanctions on Russia. Support for the US and NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is at best thin.
Recent polls in Germany reveal that the fastest growing party is now the conservative AfD or Alternative for Deutschland (Germany) Party. In the last 12 months, intent to vote for AfD in the German parliamentary elections has risen from 10 percent to 19 percent. According to Dr. Steve Turley, AfD now polls at 21 percent, making it the second most popular party in Germany, nosing out the Social Democrats (SPD) with 19 percent. According to polls, the Christian Democratic/Social Union (CDU) is first with 27 percent. The current Chancellor of Germany since December 2021, Olaf Scholz, with the SPD, has an approval rating of only 30 percent, according to the Global Leader Approval Rating Tracker. His ruling coalition depends on this own SPD Party with 19 percent, the Greens with 15 percent, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) with 7 percent. Hence his position is shaky. He is unpopular because of German cooperation with NATO and the EU on sanctions against Russia, which are devastating the German economy and turning the German people against the US and NATO proxy war in Ukraine against the Russian Federation. The conservative Alternative for Germany (AfD) is strongly against Germany’s participation in the Ukrainian proxy war against the Russian Federation. Perhaps Germans are beginning to realize that the Americans with German compliance were responsible for the Nordstream Pipeline sabotage that is suffocating German industry and impoverishing the German people in order to support a war of questionable moral background and basis.
On June 26, the first victory of the AfD in local elections set off a frenzy of leftist media outrage and the usual slanderous attacks condemning the AfD and their victory as a threat to democracy. The AfD is actually a break-off from the once conservative CDU. The AfD already has 81 of 737 seats in German Bundestag and over 12 percent of members of state parliaments, but this is the first district administrative victory, which is the 57,000 population Sonneberg District of the East German State of Thuringia. AfD conservative Robert Sesselmann defeated the CDU incumbent 53 to 47 percent.
Although the media are calling the AfD far-right extremists, most non-woke and non-hyper-leftist Americans would identify AfD policy goals as populist economic and social conservatism. They have had enough of Muslim immigration, rising crime, the European Union, NATO, anti-family leftism, and the Ukraine War, which they rightly blame on US foreign policy and CIA “Color Revolutions” overthrowing elected governments not only in Ukraine in 2014 but for decades around the world. Like the German military, they believe that German military strength and weapons necessary for German national security should not be given to Ukraine, which despite all the propaganda about saving democracy, is one of the most corrupt and despotic nations in Europe. Ukrainian President Zelensky has recently cancelled all future elections until after the war. He had already banned all opposition parties and dissenting media.
Last year we also saw significant conservative victories in Sweden and Italy.
It is interesting to note that Scholz is not the only NATO leader whose public approval has plunged. With a 30 percent approval rating, he can envy Joe Biden with 39 percent and Canada’s Trudeau with 42 percent. The UK’s Rishi Sunak is also at 30 percent, and the Labor Party is far outpolling the British “Conservatives.” Norway’s Jonas Store, Labor Party PM since 2021, also has only 30 percent public approval as does Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson. Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, who wants to put Dutch farmers out of business to advance climate change policy, has only 27 percent approval and is one of the more hawkish supporters of NATO support for Ukraine. French President Macron is in even deeper trouble with a 26 percent approval rating. Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic has an approval rating of only 20 percent. Fiala’s problems are related to sanctions, inflation, budget deficits, and huge numbers of Ukrainian refugees. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has a 32 percent approval rating. It should be obvious that disenchantment with the US-driven NATO proxy war on Russia is a major political issue.
On May 28, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his Socialist Workers Party received a crippling defeat in local and 12 contested regional administrations by two “right-wing” parties, Vox and the People’s Party. This has somehow been nullified by Sanchez, who has set new elections for July 23. This seems more slight-of-hand than most Americans can comprehend. Yet Sanchez still has a 42 percent approval rating. The Spanish situation does illustrate there is a strong rightward shift in many European elections. Sanchez is a strong supporter of Ukrainian President Zelensky.
There is widespread opposition to the Ukraine War in many European Union and NATO members. Serbia is unfriendly to NATO, because of its past meddling in Serbian regional issues and war against Serbia over Kosovo in 1999. Trouble over Kosovo is in the news again. Ninety-five percent of Serbians regard Russia as an ally. Sixty-eight percent believe the Ukraine War was started by NATO—they remember 1999 and the 2014 CIA and US State Department coup in Ukraine that overthrew an elected pro-Russian president.
In general, support for the Ukraine War is weak in Eastern Europe, even among NATO members. Bulgaria is a NATO member, but according to polling, about half of Bulgarians are wary of NATO’s war against Russia. Bulgarian polls show a 75 percent favorable opinion of Russian President Vladimir Putin, almost as high as the 81 percent favorable rating for Putin in Russia, according to the June 2023 Levada Center poll. Slovakia is a NATO member and borders Ukraine, but over half of Slovaks polled want Russia to win. In NATO member Hungary, over 90 percent of Hungarians oppose Hungarian intervention in the Ukraine War. They are about evenly divided on whose fault it is. As in Germany, it is the conservatives who oppose increased military aid to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia.
On the other hand in the UK, according to a YouGov Sky News poll, 57 percent of respondents said sanctions against Russia did not go far enough even if it meant an increase in the cost of living! This may be partially attributed to the lock-step leftist and liberal establishment dominance of British media. The British people are largely uniformed, and deliberately disinformed on the history of the Ukrainian conflict and disastrous consequences of overwhelming Russian artillery, logistical, anti-aircraft, missile, and airpower dominance that has reduced the Ukrainian Army to a fraction of its initial strength of 600,000 active and ready reserves in early 2022. Military consultant and author, Col. Douglas Macgregor, estimates that over 200,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and thousands more seriously wounded.
The British have resorted to totalitarian measures to punish dissent, blocking former Brexit leader Nigel Farage from using any British bank, practically forcing him out of the country. Farage has been critical of the NATO proxy war against Russia.
The common underlying issues that underlie this series of conservative political earthquakes are:
Excessive culturally destructive immigration and associated increasing crime.
Fuel shortages, inflation, and unemployment resulting from sanctions on Russia.
Dissent over the Ukraine War and its moral, economic, national security, and foreign policy implications.
Disrespect for traditional religious, cultural, and family values.
Insane Green Climate Change ideology.
Excessive refugee numbers and problems.
A feeling of losing their national sovereignty to the European Union and NATO.
There are more political earthquakes coming, but they are necessary to save Europe from economic disaster and totalitarian madness.
Mike Scruggs is the author of two books: The Un-Civil War: Shattering the Historical Myths; and Lessons from the Vietnam War: Truths the Media Never Told You, and over 600 articles on military history, national security, intelligent design, genealogical genetics, immigration, current political affairs, Islam, and the Middle East. 
