The popularity of Eurosceptics in the EU continues to grow. What you need to know

The elections held in three European countries have shown that the positions of the right and Eurosceptics are strengthening. In the first round of the Polish presidential election, right-wing candidates won more than 50% of the vote. In Portugal, the right-wing Chega party has gone from one deputy in parliament to the second political force in the country in six years. In Romania, the second round of the presidential election showed an upsurge in dissatisfaction with Brussels' policies. How Europe is experiencing a new right—wing wave - in the Izvestia article.

Poland

• The first round of the Polish presidential election partially met the expectations of both analysts and voters. It was not immediately possible to determine the winner, and two candidates entered the second round, which will be held on June 1 — Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, supported by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and Karol Nawrocki, representing the right-wing conservative Law and Justice party. They were originally assigned the role of favorites.

• However, the gap between them turned out to be not at all as wide as public opinion polls predicted. The two candidates were separated by only 1.82%, or about 350,000 votes, which clearly does not meet previous expectations, according to which Polish voters were allegedly tired of the eight-year rule of "Law and Justice." The results of the other participants, for whose sympathies the remaining candidates will now have to compete, can be considered depressing for the liberal Trzaskowski and inspiring for Navrotsky.

• The third and fourth places were taken by two more right-wing politicians, and much more radical ones. These are Slawomir Mentsen from the far-right Confederation bloc and Grzegorz Brown from the monarchical Confederation of the Polish Crown. In total, two politicians advocating withdrawal from the European Union, traditional values and Polish nationalism won more than 21% of the vote. If they announce their support for Navrotsky, he will become the leader of the presidential race.

• Tsaskowski doesn't have many potential allies. Although several candidates from parties from the ruling coalition participated in the first round, to which the mayor of Warsaw is close in his views, the most popular of them, Szymon Holownia, won only 4.99% of the vote. Trzaskowski has less than two weeks left to try to influence the electorate, disappointed in Tusk's unfulfilled promises and projecting their indignation onto the centrist candidate.

Portugal

• The rise of the extreme right has also received tangible confirmation following the results of the snap parliamentary elections in Portugal. They have already become the third for the country in less than four years. Following the results of the previous elections in 2024, a minority government was formed in Portugal, which included representatives of the center-right Democratic Alliance (80 seats in the 230-seat parliament), and its leader Luis Montenegro became prime minister. It spent its budget with difficulty, having obtained the consent of the main competitors from the Socialist Party, but fell due to the scandal with the Montenegro family company, which was accused of a conflict of interest. As a result, under pressure from the Socialists, new elections were scheduled for May 18.

• The center-right managed to win, gaining 33% of the vote and gaining 89 seats in parliament. But the Socialists now have to share the second place in terms of the number of mandates they have earned with the far-right Chega ("Enough is Enough") party. They received 58 mandates each. So far, this is not the final result — the counting of votes continues abroad, and according to its results, the last four places will be awarded.

• For Chega, the current result is a triumph. Back in 2019, it had only one representative in parliament, the current leader Andre Ventura. Three years later, the faction grew to 12 members, and in 2024, to 38. Now she has a chance to disrupt the almost half-century-old order, when the second political force in Portugal was either the center-right or the Socialists. Whatever place they end up in, the country will remain a shaky minority government without strong support in parliament. At the same time, according to the constitution, it will be possible to hold elections again, which the population is already tired of, only in the spring of 2026.

• Back in the early 2020s, Portugal was considered the last exception compared to the rest of Europe, where right-wing forces were gaining significant support. But now local voters have a clear request for anti-immigration policies, conservative values and euroscepticism, while the mainstream parties did not solve the accumulated problems, but held one election after another (and probably will do it again in a year). Their next failure may lead to a further increase in Chega's representation in the highest echelons of government.

Romania

In Romania, the long-suffering presidential elections have ended, which also showed an increase in the popularity of the right, albeit in a veiled form. Following the results of the second round, the centrist, the current mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, won with 53.6% of the vote. His opponent, the head of the far-right Alliance for the Unification of Romanians, George Simion, received 46.4% of the vote.

• This result was largely unexpected. In the first round, Simion won a landslide victory and beat Dan by almost 20 percentage points. Thus, the voters showed that they still support the former leader of the extreme right, Calin Georgescu, who was deprived of victory in the first round in December 2024 (we discussed the situation with political pressure in Romania in more detail here). He himself supported Simion, who was just over 9% short of his own success in the first round.

Electoral rejection: the results of the elections in Romania threaten a new political crisis

A second round will be held in Poland, but the results of the vote will no longer affect relations with the Russian Federation.

• Dan was helped to get ahead by the extensive support of both other Romanian politicians and foreign leaders, including Moldovan President Maia Sandu. The second round also broke a 25-year—old record for turnout - more than 11.5 million people came to the polls against less than 9.5 million in the first round.

• Although Simion was defeated, there is reason for optimism for himself and the entire Romanian right wing, which can be seen in that very turnout. Simion was able to attract 1.5 million more votes compared to the first round and eventually received the support of 5.3 million voters. This is three times higher than the result of the Alliance for the Unification of Romanians, shown in the last parliamentary elections in 2024. With the current numbers, Simion could count on a majority in the legislature, and this is the potential that can be realized in the future.