Russia was definitely watching the results of the EU election.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s shock decision to call a parliamentary election following his party’s crushing defeat in the EU polls, as well as the success of the far right in countries across the Continent, made headline news.
With Macron recently spearheading an initiative to deploy Western forces to Ukraine, it is perhaps unsurprising that the tone was gleeful.
The Russian and Chinese propaganda machines are making headway for two very clear reasons:
The first one is nearly brain dead simple to resolve. Tighten controls on immigration. Like it or not that seems to be what many voters want and the continuing refusal to be responsive to that makes politicians out of step with their constituents. Are these Representative Democracies or not?
The second is more nuanced but also relatively straightforward; stop outsourcing Blue Collar / Manufacturing work to low labor cost places like China. In fact the whole trends needs to reverse and those jobs needs to brought back!
That’s it. Those two things explain the rising support for the “Far Right” in both the Europe and the United States. The person pulling the lever for a Right-Oid candidate isn’t doing it because they love Russia or Putin, they are doing it because they want meaningful employment that allows them to be at least somewhat comfortable.