The European elections, which are the world's second-biggest democratic exercise, have begun
outside Milan’s cathedral was packed, despite an unseasonal drizzle. The punters cheered as the leaders of 11 nationalist parties from around the continent called for a populist revolution against the European Union’s establishment. “Our Europe is not 60 years old but millennia old!” bellowed Marine Le Pen from France. Jörg Meuthen of Alternative for Germany called for a “Fortress Europe” closed to immigrants.
The five-yearly European elections, the world’s second-biggest democratic exercise after India’s, began on May 23rd and will conclude on May 26th. They will decide the make-up of the European Parliament, the union’s legislature which, though often incomprehensible to outsiders, has gained substantial new powers in recent years. The European Commission, the’s executive, is the only body that can initiate legislation.
The scene in Milan on May 18th was a glimpse of that future—but not as Mr Salvini intended. Right-wing populists are on the rise in Europe. But they are just part of a wider trend away from monolithic parties. And the populists are themselves subject to that process. Absent from the Milan rally were Poland’s Law and Justice party, who find Mr Salvini too pro-Russian and the Sweden Democrats, who dislike Ms Le Pen for the same reason. Even among those present, the fractures were obvious.
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