Support for rightwing populists and the far right declined in Finland, Sweden and Denmark in Sunday’s European elections, with a surge in support for Greens and left-leaning parties offering what one candidate described a “ray of hope” for the rest of the EU.
With Emmanuel Macron calling snap legislative elections in France after his allies’ crushing loss to the far right and Olaf Scholz under mounting pressure in Germany after AfD became the country’s second largest party in the European parliament, the Nordic nations – where the Finns party are a member of the ruling coalition in Finland, and the Sweden Democrats prop up the Stockholm government – appear to have headed in a different direction.
