Economic anxiety was bull**** in 2016. In countries with more than 2 viable parties, do explain why the people choose the far right over the more left parties?
Economic anxiety is real to the people experiencing declining living standards, an opiate epidemic, etc. It's been shown that "OOT counties", as in counties that voted for Obama twice then Trump, were more likely to have had more significant casualties in the phoney wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. Please check your privilege and recognize realities such as declining life expectancy, declining living standards, and rising infant mortality.
As for far right vs far left, historically when it comes down to a choice between the two the people will support both, but the establishment will support the far right, pushing it over the top.
Von Pappen famously said "we hired him!" when the German establishment supported Hitler for Chancellor after he got 32% of the vote. The German elites were ok with Hitler because they preferred him to the communists.
In France, Macron and Attal kept campaigning when they should have encouraged more people to support Jean Luc Melanchon.
And I'll bet that in Germany, if Scholz and Baerbock drag Germany further down in flames, we'll see more establishment support for Alice Weidel than for Sahra Wagenknecht.
PS French voters have been rejecting Le Pen for forty years and gotten nothing to show for it, so let's not be narcissistic by calling them "far right" rather than trying to understand what is happening.
www.france24.com
www.theguardian.com
www.politico.eu
www.dw.com
www.lemonde.fr
www.telegraph.co.uk
