The big story of the weekend’s elections to the European Parliament was the rise of Right-populist parties. From France and Italy to Germany and Austria, anti-establishment groups increased their vote share and underlined their growing power in the wake of widespread protests across the continent earlier this year. But which countries have seen the most pronounced Rightward turn? Which is the European Union’s most populist country?
UnHerd has conducted its own analysis, combining the percentage of available seats in each EU country won — at the time of writing — by parties which are members of the EU’s Right-populist groups, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Identity and Democracy (ID). Our calculation has also included cases, such as the AfD in Germany and Fidesz in Hungary, where Right-populist parties are unaffiliated with the European Parliament groups.
| Europe’s Right-populist league table |
| % of seats won in 2024 elections by Right-populist parties |
In terms of proportion of European Parliament seats won by Right-populist parties, Hungary comes out on top with 52%, or 11 out of 21 available seats. This is thanks to the success of the Right-wing Fidesz-KDNP coalition, consisting of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s governing party and the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP), which is now unaffiliated with any of the Parliament’s groups having left the European People’s Party Group (EPP) in 2021.