United In A Bleak Outlook – Concerns, Crises, and Right-Wing Views Ahead of the 2024 EU Elections
As the 2024 European Parliamentary (EP) elections approach, the EU faces significant challenges, including foreign policy threats, economic instability, and widespread uncertainty. Amidst multiple past and current crises, European public opinion is under intense scrutiny. Far-right forces are likely to benefit from this, with projections predicting a shift to the right with increasing influence of anti-democratic and Eurosceptic forces in the next European Parliament.
d|part conducted a comprehensive research project, surveying eight EU member states—France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, and Sweden—to understand current political attitudes, concerns, and hopes among EU citizens. The survey conducted in April 2024 was complemented by in-depth focus groups in Germany and France in January and February 2024. The study aimed to determine whether EU citizens share similar hopes and fears and to explore how socio-economic experiences influence political attitudes, particularly with the anticipated right-wing surge.
Overall, our results have indicated widespread dissatisfaction among EU citizens regarding the current state of society and politics, coupled with a pessimistic outlook on the future development of standard of living in their respective countries. Moreover, people across the EU are largely concerned about economic and social issues. Dissatisfaction with how national governments have handled recent crises, especially the cost-of-living crisis, is prevalent across all surveyed EU member states. Additionally, our results indicate a widespread normalization of anti-democratic attitudes and extreme right positions within European societies, beyond far-right supporters and also among supporters of democratic parties.