The historic success of the radical right in the last elections for the European Parliament may have come as a shock, as it shook the two most important governments in the EU.
But it shouldn't surprise anyone who has paid attention to the bitter mood among many young people on the continent, who not only hold hard-line anti-immigrant views, but seem to express them more publicly than ever.
In Germany, the share of young people who voted for the AfD jumped between the last European Parliament elections in 2019 and this election (by 11 percent among voters aged between 24 and 30). In France, Marine Le Pen's National Rally party won about 30 percent of the youth vote nationally, an increase of 10 percent compared to 2019.
Today, European elites are challenged to assess the consequences of a youth-led shift to the right in the EU. In France, the Bardel generation will go to the polls again on June 30 and July 7 to elect a new national parliament in two rounds. The snap election, called by Macron, will show whether the shock success of the National Assembly last week was an outpouring of the protest vote or a seismic shift in the country's politics, cementing the far-right party as the leading political force. In Germany, the poor performance of the three parties in Olaf Scholz's ruling coalition did not trigger snap elections, but could mean a death sentence for the government.
Whatever happens in the next few weeks and months, young far-right voters will shape European politics for years, if not decades. Political loyalties formed at a young age often last a lifetime. Europe's "strangers out" generation may have arrived in a wave; and that wave is unlikely to subside anytime soon.
