The difficulties facing two of Europe’s leading far right figures underscored right-wing movements’ failure to coalesce behind their sizable polling advantages.
Convicted National Rally leader Marine Le Pen announced she will run for the French presidency next year after a court cleared the way, but will likely do so under home confinement against a darkening fiscal backdrop. Reform Britain’s Nigel Farage resigned from parliament amid scrutiny of his finances, with plans to recontest his seat — a gamble he hopes can break “an unending cycle” of controversies, a Bloomberg columnist wrote — while facing a challenge from his right.
Europe’s populists have benefited from the middle ground’s fracturing, Brookings noted, but have yet to prove they can overcome their own divisions.