In Britain we may have election fever but Europe is going to the polls too — with the far right predicted to do well across the continent in elections to the European Parliament from June 6-9.

With our sister papers Junge Welt of Germany and Arbejderen of Denmark, we compiled a series of articles looking at the nature of the far-right threat across different European countries, of which this is the fourth. We would like to thank Junge Welt for organising the series and translation.

IF THERE isn’t a broad, cross-party opposition movement to the EU to organise the fight against the social spending cuts from Brussels and gather the people’s anger and frustration, “then it will be the right who will organise the resistance.”

Karen Sunds, chair of the Danish Communist Party’s (KP) EU committee is convinced of this, she warns Danish daily Arbejderen.

Sunds is a member of the Folkebevaegelsen Mod EU (People’s Movement against the EU), which aims to bring together opponents of the EU across party lines on an anti-racist basis.

In the Folkebevaegelsen, Sunds has been involved in a number of campaigns, for example, the fight against the EU posting of workers’ directive, outsourcing, cuts to public budgets and the EU internal market as well as the so-called freedom of movement within the EU.

The reason: these led to terrible living and working conditions for foreign workers. The Folkebevaegelsen Mod EU was first elected to the EU Parliament in 1979, where it was represented until the last election in 2019.

Most recently, however, it failed to collect the more than 70,000 signatures required in Denmark to stand as a candidate in the upcoming EU elections on June 9.

“In other European countries where there is no broad, cross-party anti-EU movement, right-wing forces such as Le Pen in France and the AfD in Germany are successfully campaigning against the EU,” Sunds told Arbejderen. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) is set to become the country’s largest party.

In Denmark, according to Sunds, the existence of a cross-party popular movement has helped to limit the influence of the extreme right. According to an analysis by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), right-wing parties critical of the EU will perform strongly in a number of European countries in the EU parliamentary elections in June. Right-wing parties would then become the strongest force in nine of the 27 EU member states, including Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and France.

According to the ECFR, the right-wing parties will also do well in Germany, Spain, Portugal and Sweden. The right-wing parties “have skilfully tapped into the movements protesting against passing the bill for the climate crisis onto farmers and ordinary people,” Sunds told Arbejderen.

In 2022, the Dutch government had earmarked a total of €25 billion to buy up farms and reduce animal production by a third. This announcement prompted Dutch farmers to organise tractor demonstrations. This led to traffic jams on 1,200 kilometres of road and violent clashes between police and farmers.

The rightwingers are also addressing fears of losing control of the food supply as more and more foreign hormone-treated beef and genetically modified food appear on the shelves of EU supermarkets.

According to Sunds, a general sentiment is spreading throughout Europe against governments that neglect locally produced food in favour of cheap meat and grain imports from Ukraine, while food and energy prices are rising.

“In addition, taxes are being introduced on diesel and wages are not keeping pace,” says Sunds.

Compared to other EU countries, the Danish right is currently split into many different parties. However, it could become really dangerous if it gains a foothold in the working class and social movements and becomes a mass movement, warns Sunds.

If the class struggle intensifies in Denmark and mass social movements emerge, the far right will also try to “fish in troubled waters” here. There have already been attempts by right-wing forces to exploit farmers’ anger.

In Jutland and Zealand, for example, hundreds of people rallied against plans to introduce a CO2 tax on agriculture. With sausages and beer, a ride on a rodeo bull and a competition to win an air fryer, the right-wing populist Denmark Democrats tried to mobilise people in line with their politics.

At the same time, the parliamentary part of the left — the “red-green” alliance Enhedslisten (Unity List) — has abandoned its consistent rejection of the EU in favour of the idea that the EU can be transformed into a solidarity project for the benefit of ordinary people.

“If the left abandons its opposition to the EU at the same time, right-wing forces will be given a free hand and the opportunity to speak directly to the EU opposition that exists in large parts of the Danish working class,” warns Sunds.

In her view, it is disastrous that the broad EU opposition is weak at a time when it is perhaps needed more than ever before. The most effective way to stop the right-wing forces is to actively participate in the struggles of the population.

“We need to organise on specific platforms. If we organise people and get them active, we — and not the right — can help to politicise the movement and give it direction.”

The active forces will demand information on their own initiative about how the EU is driving social cuts and how the EU single market is causing poverty among workers in all member states — “And then people will quickly come to the conclusion that the only solution is to leave the EU,” says Sunds.

Sunds told Arbejderen that there are two ways in which this can be achieved: either the Folkebevaegelsen Mod EU repositions itself to become a strong force that is rooted in the population and in large parts of Denmark; and if this does not succeed, Sunds believes that a new, broad-based anti-EU movement based on concrete initiatives must be built.

“We need to engage with ordinary people and take their concerns seriously. We need to create a broad popular movement, form networks and join forces to fight against cuts and social dumping, for example,” Sunds says.

Translated from German to English by Marc Bebenroth.

You can read part 2 of this series on the European far right, on Sweden, here and part 1, on Italy, here.