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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and here we are quarter to 12:00. For our last 15 minutes today, we're going to end with a call in for anyone in or with ties to any country in Europe. Why? This past weekend's striking results in the European parliamentary elections is why. While Europe's centrist groups did ultimately maintain their majorities, some of the 27 countries voted for far-right parties making inroads in France and Germany in particular.
Now, we're going to open up the phones and invite you to help us report this story if you are in or from or have ties to any country in Europe, especially France, and Germany, but anywhere else too, and help the rest of us understand the implications of what just happened this weekend. If you have ties to any of those 27 countries, what just happened here? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. You can also text that number.
There were so many issues on the table, of course, but the US press is reporting that this election was a referendum on centrism in a way and that it came down to issues of immigration, taxes in some cases, and climate change. If you voted or if you know someone who did, if you are in or from or have any ties to any European countries, help us report this story. You be the explainer to the rest of our audience. What brought people out to the polls? What do you think determined these outcomes anywhere in the EU? 212-433-WNYC. Help us out, people with ties to Europe. 212-433-9692.
The far-right Alternative for Germany party or AfD, for example, made some surprising gains during this election. If you haven't heard this yet, preliminary results show that it came in behind the mainstream conservative, Christian Democratic Union, but ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats. The group has been officially labeled a suspected extremist group by the German authorities but is now the second most voted-for political party in that country or political group. German listeners or people with ties to Germany, tell us what just happened here. 212-433-WNYC. Why did they do so well?
In France, the swing towards the right ushered in a "political earthquake", The New York Times called it. French President Macron, you probably heard, called snap elections as a result for the country's national assembly. They'll happen on June 30th and July 7th. Listeners with ties to France, what do you think just happened there? 212-433-WNYC.
Marine Le Pen, Macron's main right-wing rival, could have a much more favorable shot at the French presidential elections. Those are three years from now, but depending on what happens in the coming weeks. What do you think? Again, why do you think this shift to the right in Germany and France, I will acknowledge that some other countries did not experience this shift to the right, the Netherlands, Poland, some of the others, but listeners from there or Germany or France or with ties to any of the EU countries, help explain to our listeners what just happened here, and could there be implications for the United States?
I've been wondering, as host of a show that does a climate segment every week, if the backlash against the cost to the working families of Europe, of some of the new climate laws is something you think could also be reflected here, Donald Trump running on drill drill drill on day one, right? Europeans, help explain America to ourselves. You're always invited to do that. In this case, help explain what just happened here in the EU elections. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. We will take your calls right after this.
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Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Okay. Listeners in or from or with ties to any European country, what just happened here in these EU elections? 212-433-WNYC. Call or text 212-433-9692. It's not every day we get a call directly from Stockholm, but we're getting one now. Sarah, you're on WNYC. Thank you for calling in.
Sarah: Hey, Brian, I've been listening since I was 17 years old. Huge fan.
Brian Lehrer: So glad you do and so glad you're on. What's you got?
Sarah: I live in Stockholm. I've been here for 12 years after graduating from SVA in New York. I was really surprised to wake up and find out that our Green Party did so well in the European election. It actually is the third biggest party that we sent this year.
Brian Lehrer: Why do you think it's different in different countries? Spain is another one I haven't mentioned yet where the rightward drift apparently did not happen. Do you have any theory or any reporting you've seen? Why would France and Germany be drifting right but not Spain, not Poland, not Sweden, not some of the others?
Sarah: I think it has a lot to do with the working class having a harder time in those countries. Here, we still have policies that supports the working class to a really good degree. Free schools, free preschool, these kinds of things. I also think that Sweden has always felt that it needs to be correct and do the right thing and send voices that are going to balance out the far right. That's what we've done. Our left party has actually gone up 4.2% and we've gone down with our far-right party as well.
Brian Lehrer: Interesting. Sarah, thank you so much for calling us. Call again. Listener texts, "The Netherlands have already shifted so far to the right that they couldn't get much further right during this election. It's frightening for a so-called liberal country," writes that one listener. Let's talk to Cordula in Brooklyn, who's calling in and is a Dutch citizen. Cordula, you're on WNYC. Hello.
Cordula: Hi, Brian. My daughter Johanna always pushes me to listen to you, and I do because I try to listen to my children. Okay. The Netherlands has a very right-wing development. We had national elections not long before the European elections, and the outcome was very worrisome. The head of the extreme right-wing party in the Netherlands is Geert Wilders. Mr. Wilders has strong connections with Orban in Hungary, with Marine Le Pen in France, and with the Flemish right-wing party. It's extremely worrisome.
Brian Lehrer: Why is it happening?
Cordula: Why? For the Netherlands, I think it's a small country. People are worried about immigrants, and even if the foreigners in the Netherlands are mostly temporary seasonal workers that then go back after a couple of months to their own country, but that number is being exploited by the right wing.
Brian Lehrer: How similar or different does that backlash against immigration look to you as what's happening in New York right now?
Cordula: Oh, that's a difficult question, I think. I think it is similar, but I feel New York is still a democratic place open to foreigners.
Brian Lehrer: Cordula, thank you so much for calling. Regina in Matawan, you're on WNYC. Regina, you're on WNYC. Hello.
Regina: Hi. Hello. I am an immigrant from Germany. I'm here for 40 years. I grew up as the post-war generation in Germany after World War II. Our generation, especially in Germany, thought we had finally learned the lesson. I am appalled to see that we are going for another round. In Europe, in the USA, there's a lot of drifting to the right and extremism. I believe some of it is just fear and fear-mongering. In Germany, definitely, it has to do with immigration and fear of different and fear of running out of resources and being made to share beyond what people are willing to share.
Brian Lehrer: Ah, so a fear of scarcity or an experience of scarcity.
Regina: Yes, it's definitely in there.
Brian Lehrer: Yes.
Regina: The foreigner being foreign, not fitting in, not doing what is expected.
Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. That so backs up our conversation with Murad Awawdeh from the New York Immigration Coalition on the show the other day. That's what he kept bringing up when I was asking him all these devil's advocate questions about, how many is too many all at once? What about the reasonable argument by people, or isn't it a reasonable argument by people who don't hate the other to say, "Well, 200,000 more people to New York in the course of two years, is it just too much right now?" Is Biden's pause reasonable in that respect?
What he kept answering was, "We fear scarcity. If we had the right government policies, there wouldn't be scarcity." It's an irrational fear of scarcity and inability to deal with it at the policy level. Just interesting connection between what we heard on the show the other day and what Regina was just talking about.
One more. Anna in Flemington, originally from Poland. Anna, you're on WNYC. Hello.
Anna: Hello, Brian. I was born and raised in Poland, here in the States for the last 40 years. Very happy that the center helped in Poland for the European Parliament. We have the same results there as we had in the Polish election last year, so grateful for that.
My comment is that I blame Donald Trump for a lot what's happening in Europe. We don't like to easily admit that America has such a huge influence in Europe, but it certainly does. What's been happening, specifically in Poland and I think in other countries in Europe too, is that the right-wing parties pick up straight out of Donald Trump's playbook. The fake news, the media is the enemy of the people, the blatant lies. All of that came to the fore only after 2015 and on.
Brian Lehrer: Yes. You know what's interesting, Anne Applebaum, the writer for The Atlantic, who's also from Poland has a new piece that says, "If you're worried about contagion from Europe's move to the far right here in the US, don't be because we led them into it." It sounds like you agree with Anne Applebaum.
Anna: Absolutely.
Brian Lehrer: Anna, thank you very much for your call. Thanks to everybody who called today, all show, and certainly, all of you who just called with ties to Europe. You did help us report this story. That's The Brian Lehrer Show for today, produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum, Juliana Fonda, and Milton Ruiz at the audio controls. Stay tuned for All of It.
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