In this week's All Points North podcast we look at the spectacular success of the Left Alliance in European elections, the poor result for the Finns Party and the possible consequences of a far-right surge elsewhere in the European Union.
"One of the biggest issues in the election in Finland was whether there will be a similar cooperation between the far-right and traditional right in the European Parliament that we have seen now for a year here in Finland — we have seen what it means for workers, for workers' rights," said Left Alliance leader Li Andersson, who set a new record with her personal vote total.
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We asked University of Helsinki Senior Researcher Emilia Palonen, who leads a research group on emotions, populism and polarisation, why the Left Alliance performed so well.
"Finns Party leader, Finance Minister Riikka Purra has been shown waving scissors quite eagerly...this may have backfired," Palonen said of the Left Alliance's appeal in opposition to the current government marked by austerity.
We also asked Mehreen Khan, Economics Editor at The Times and a former Brussels correspondent, about the broader European context and consequences of this election, after French President Emmanuel Macron called a national legislative election to head off the threat of a resurgent far-right National Rally party.
Khan told APN that there is extensive coverage of radical right-wing forces, but a lack of discussion about what this new way of doing politics means for marginalised people in Europe.
"Something that I've been very vocal on as a rare person of colour working in the Brussels press room is that you never hear from the people who are really at the sharp end of the rhetoric of the far right," said Khan.
"They just don't seem to exist in this political conversation. And that's either because they're not mobilised on a national level or they've already been demonised to such an extent that they're not really allowed to have a voice in this conversation."
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This week's show was presented by Egan Richardson and Zena Iovino. The sound engineer was Panu Willman.
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