Why is Europe’s youth leaning so far right?

In Europe, the slogan “never again fascism” is one that still resonates. The death and destruction wrought by hyper-nationalist, authoritarian states in the first half of the 20th century still haunts the nightmares of successive generations.

But, as the recent European Union elections show, the fear of the far right is slipping. The political logic of earlier decades no longer holds in some quarters, and far-right parties are making gains across Europe, as their strategy of electoral engagement continues to pay off.

Views that would have ended political careers in Europe a generation ago are now being rewarded with electoral success.

Despite the lead candidate of the German far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party declaring that members of the Nazi SS were not necessarily criminals, his party climbed 5% higher to outpoll all of the parties in Germany’s ruling coalition and gain six new seats in the European parliament.

The AfD also performed shockingly well in local elections that coincided with the European vote. With important elections coming up in the eastern states of Germany, it remains an open question whether the taboo forbidding collaboration with the far right will endure another electoral surge by the AfD.

Most breathtaking was the vote in France. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (previously National Front) smashed President Emmanuel Macron’s brittle coalition of centre-right parties. The result prompted the president to call a snap election, in what one commentator has called “one of the wildest gambles in modern French history.”

Macron’s call for all democratic parties to unite against the far right has already failed. One prominent center-right politician, Éric Ciotti, declared his