The best demonstration of how the extreme right manages to distort reality and introduce into the political debate issues that are not part of the main concerns of citizens, but rather part of their own political programs, has just been given by the Eurobarometer commissioned by the European Parliament, prior to the June 9 elections. The result shows that Europeans are increasingly aware that their anguish is due to the spread of poverty, the deterioration of the public health system and the possibility of war, that is, the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Enough of us believing that it is the “overflowing” immigration that drives the citizens of the countries of the Union crazy. Enough of not listening to what these citizens say and accepting that their most sincere interpreters are the spokespersons for the extreme right. Because this inability to prevent the ultra program from occupying the space of political and media debate is the only explanation for the paradox that is currently occurring in the Union: the same polls that announce that the extreme right will experience a notable increase in votes in the June elections show that this increase is not in line with the true concerns of citizens, far from these programs.
It turns out that if you ask them, these citizens are more concerned about the deterioration of public health systems (in Spain the record of 850,000 people on waiting lists to undergo surgery has been broken), about jobs and for their safety than for the presence of immigrants. And if you listen to young people, they are still much more concerned about climate change than the presence in their city of people of a different color or religion, no matter how much they try to hide the issue of climate threat to benefit business groups committed to delay essential adaptation measures that can reduce their profit margins.
(The possibility that Teresa Ribera, one of the best experts on climate change, heads the European list of the PSOE would be a decisive move by President Sánchez, to claim Spanish prominence in the future Union, but it would leave an important gap in his own Government ).
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One thing stands out in the new Eurobarometer: France's pessimism. It is curious that this country, which is part of the hard core of the Union, which was fundamental in the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community and where two of its main inspirers, Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman, came from, has also been the one responsible for sinking the Common Defense Europe, which he misses so much now, and whose existence he denied in 1954, with a negative vote in the National Assembly, and also the country that prevented the promulgation of a European Constitution, rejected in the referendum 2005 by 52% of French citizens. Today it is also the country that has the least confidence in the future of the Union: 52% are pessimistic, compared to 42% optimistic. A figure quite different from the Spanish optimism (63% optimistic, compared to 31% pessimistic) or the even higher one of the Italians (66% optimistic and 32% pessimistic, perhaps because, as an analyst from that country ironically stated, Italians do not trust in the structures of their own State and hope that the Union will provide them with more solid ones).
70% of Spaniards surveyed affirm that it is “very likely” that they will vote on June 9 to elect Spain's representatives in the European Parliament, but it is possible that this percentage may vary depending on the result of the previous regional elections. , especially the Catalan ones, which will take place shortly before, on May 12: voters will not be mobilized in the same way if the result favors a Catalan Government chaired by the socialist Salvador Illa as if an exclusively pro-independence Government is set up. In any case, Spaniards do not differ much from the European average when it comes to listing the topics they would prefer to see addressed during the European election campaign (and perhaps also in the regional or Spanish campaigns?). Once again, these issues are the fight against poverty and social exclusion, support for public health, the creation of new jobs and, at the same level, the defense and security of the Union. What does the extreme right offer in these chapters so that more Europeans are thinking about giving them their vote? Nothing, but neither politicians of other tendencies nor the media are capable of exposing it. They can't find a way out of that trap, and their speech is discussed, instead of changing the debate.
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