LONDON, May 11 (Xinhua) -- As Britain's Labour Party suffered heavy losses in local and regional elections and far-right Reform UK scored its biggest breakthrough yet, a wider shift in European politics came into sharper focus.
Across the continent, right-wing and populist parties are no longer confined to the political margins. They are winning council seats in Britain, topping polls in Germany, consolidating support in France, governing in Italy and challenging long-established party systems from Austria to Portugal.
BRITAIN'S FAR RIGHT SURGE
The latest results from Britain's local and regional elections, released on Saturday, delivered a fresh blow to the ruling Labour Party.
The vote, held less than two years after Labour's landslide victory in the July 2024 general election, was widely seen as a key political test for Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government. It also pointed to a more fragmented political landscape, with voters moving further away from Britain's traditional Labour-Conservative contest.
In England, voters cast ballots for more than 5,000 council seats across 136 councils, the largest round of local contests since the 2024 general election. Final results showed Labour losing almost 1,500 seats and control of around 40 local councils, including several traditional strongholds, while Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, gained more than 1,400 seats and took control of 14 councils. Nationalist parties also strengthened their positions in Wales and Scotland.
Ian Scott, a professor at the University of Manchester, told Xinhua that Labour's losses in places such as Hartlepool and Tameside hit the party's "heartland vote." Voters moving to Reform UK and the Greens, he said, were looking for "something different," as many increasingly saw Labour and the Conservatives as too similar, reactive and unable to offer a convincing alternative.
In Wales, Plaid Cymru became the largest party in the Senedd, the Welsh parliament, for the first time, ending Labour's long dominance in Welsh politics. Reform UK came second, followed by Welsh Labour. In Scotland, the Scottish National Party won another term in government but fell short of a majority, while Reform UK made a notable breakthrough, winning the same number of seats as Scottish Labour.
"The two old beasts of UK politics, the Conservatives and Labour, are being challenged by new parties, and especially by Reform UK," John Bryson, a professor at the University of Birmingham, told Xinhua. He described the moment as "a generational alteration" in Britain's political infrastructure.
EUROPE MOVES FURTHER RIGHT
Britain's elections quickly drew attention across Europe because they looked less like an isolated British phenomenon than part of a wider political shift.
In Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has moved from a protest fringe party to one polling at record levels. An INSA survey published on April 25 put the AfD at a record high of 28 percent, ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative CDU/CSU bloc. In the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, an Infratest dimap poll released in early May showed the AfD at 41 percent, well ahead of Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), raising the possibility that the AfD could become the strongest party in a regional election in September.
France shows a slower but deeper normalization of the far right. A Verian survey published early this year found that 44 percent of French people saw the National Rally not only as an opposition or anti-establishment party, but also as capable of participating in government. The survey also said 42 percent agreed with the party's ideas, a record high that was 13 points higher than in 2022.
In Italy, the right has already entered the heart of power. Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy, once seen as outside the mainstream, has led the government since 2022. In Austria, the Freedom Party achieved a historic breakthrough in September 2024 by winning the national parliamentary election -- the first time a far-right party had come first in a nationwide vote in postwar Austria.
Romania's largest parliamentary party, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), joined forces with the far-right opposition Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) to submit a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan. The motion passed on May 5 with 281 votes in favor, well above the 233-vote threshold, ousting the pro-EU government that had been in office for just over 10 months.
In Portugal, the far-right Chega party has seen a dramatic rise in support since its founding in 2019, reshaping the country's traditionally moderate political landscape.
ROOTS OF POPULARIST SURGE
The rise of right-wing and populist parties has been driven first by broad dissatisfaction with the status quo.
In Britain, Reform UK benefited from this anti-establishment mood. Stephen Coleman, emeritus professor of political communication at the University of Leeds, said that Reform voters see the party less as a conventional party than as a movement against "politics as usual."
Experts also argue that across Europe, voters are punishing governments they see as unable to cope with illegal immigration, improve living standards, provide affordable housing or maintain a clear sense of control.
In Portugal, the Chega party has risen rapidly by tapping into anger over housing shortages, pressure on the healthcare system, corruption scandals and growing frustration with the traditional political establishment.
In Germany, sluggish growth and dissatisfaction with the governing parties have helped the AfD present itself as a protest vehicle, especially in the east. The sluggish economy is acting as a driver for the AfD's support rate, said Wu Huiping, a professor with Tongji University in East China, adding that the strong support for the AfD is rooted in the dissatisfaction with the current society and economy, which amounts to a "protest vote" against the governing parties.
Migration is another major driver. Right-wing parties have turned border control into a symbol of wider anxieties about security, welfare resources, national identity and state capacity.
Tim Bale, a professor at Queen Mary University of London, told Xinhua that the Reform vote was "partly a protest vote," and reflected anger over irregular migration across the English Channel. "And it's very much part of the rise of right-wing populism throughout Europe," he said.
Official data show Britain's irregular arrivals remain politically sensitive. In the year ending December 2025, the country recorded 46,497 arrivals via illegal routes, with nearly 90 percent arriving on small boats.
Farage has seized on that anxiety, calling Reform UK's election gains "a historic shift in British politics," while his party has promised much tougher action, including deporting "all illegal migrants." For many voters, the issue has become less a statistical question than a symbol of whether the state still controls its borders.
According to a report released in April by the RFBerlin Centre for Research and Analysis on Migration, the number of immigrants living in the European Union reached a record 64.2 million in 2025, an increase of about 2.1 million from the previous year.
At the end of last year, the European Council on Foreign Relations noted that Western politicians are increasingly framing migration as an issue of national security and social cohesion, helping shift political debate onto terrain long favored by the populist right. ■