European elections: in France, the RN confirms its lead and the nationalist surge in Europe

Less than three months before the European elections, polls still show the far-right National Rally party in the lead in France.

Marine Le Pen's party is even widening its lead, according to the latest Ipsos poll for the newspaper

Le Monde

, Monday March 11.

And France is not an isolated case: nationalists are on the rise throughout the European Union.

Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally (RN) party, and Marine Le Pen, parliamentary leader of the party, attend the meeting to launch the campaign for the European elections, in Marseille, March 3, 2024. © Gonzalo Fuentes /Reuters

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In France,

all the polls have been pointing in the same direction

for several weeks.

The latest,

that of the Ipsos Institute for the newspaper

Le Monde

published Monday morning: 31% of French people announce that they want to vote for

Jordan Bardella's list

next June, a score much higher than that achieved by the RN in 2019, and above all up three points compared to the last wave in November.

At the same time, the list of the presidential majority carried by Valérie Hayer is down two points, at 18% of voting intentions.

Follow much lower in the ranking, the PS lists of Raphael Glucksmann, ecologist of Marie Toussaint and that of LR François-Xavier Bellamy, in fifth position.

France is following the same trend as many European countries which are seeing a surge in nationalists and a decline in so-called “ 

progressive

 ” parties.

The

breakthrough of the Chega populists in the Portuguese legislative elections

on Sunday March 10 is the latest example.

But this does not mean that the nationalist right will be able to unite in the next legislature.

They are today

divided into two groups in the European Parliament in Strasbourg

and their disagreements are numerous and sometimes profound.

Also read: Far-rights, abstention and disinformation, the challenges of the 2024 European elections

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