Europes surging populist right is reshaping the political establishment

By Inaya Folarin Iman Updated on: October 19, 2026 / 12:26 PM EDT / CBS News

The change of political occupants reflects a wider political upheaval sweeping some of Europe’s biggest democracies. In France, Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally has overtaken much of the traditional right ahead of the next year’s presidential election. 

In Germany, the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has made historic electoral gains, challenging the center-right Christian Democrats. There are similar trends in Italy, Spain, Sweden and other corners of the continent.

While the histories and ambitions of the movements in all these countries differ, collectively, their rise is forcing many of Europe’s established conservative parties to make a choice: either adopt some of the populist right’s increasingly hard-line positions on immigration and national identity and cooperate with them, or risk losing voters to them altogether.

Germany’s political firewall under pressure

In Germany, the direction of right wing political movements is especially fraught given its history as the birthplace of the Nazi party. Since World War II, all of Germany’s established parties have maintained what’s become known as a political firewall against far-right extremists, refusing to enter governing coalitions with any party associated with nationalist, anti-democratic rhetoric or with links to extremist movements. 

That firewall, or brandmauer in German, has stood against the AfD, which has been designated an extremist group by some regional authorities due to the associations and rhetoric of figures within the party.

The AfD openly uses the term and espouses “remigration,” a notion anti-hate groups say has been employed by extreme right-wing activists to advocate the expulsion of all immigrants and, in some cases, non-white European citizens.”

The party insists its own definition is different, describing remigration as “all measures and incentives for the lawful and legally compliant return of foreigners who are required to leave the country to their homeland.” 

The AfD explicitly rejects the removal of German citizens on the basis of their ancestry, stating “all Germans are part of our nation, regardless of origin, ancestry, worldview, or religious affiliation.”. 

But German security authorities have documented links between AfD figures and extremist activists who advocate for a broader, ethnicity-defined concept of remigration. 

The AfD’s recent gains in local and regional elections is putting the firewall under pressure. 

In September, the AfD won 43.8% of the vote in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, more than doubling its support from the previous election. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which had previously led the state government, finished a distant second with 17.2% of the vote. 

The AfD has built its strongest base in eastern Germany, seizing on lingering resentment over the unification of the country’s Cold War-era East and West, economic inequality and a widespread distrust of political institutions. But its support now extends well beyond those traditional strongholds. 

The AfD’s rise has also been fueled by dissatisfaction with Germany’s handling of the 2015–2016 European migration crisis. The country, under former Chancellor Angela Merkel and amid broad sympathy for people being displaced by Syria’s civil war, welcomed about 890,000 asylum seekers in 2015 alone, more than any other European nation. 

A decade later, in the 2025 federal election, the AfD won approximately 32% of the vote in eastern states and 18% in western Germany, becoming the country’s second-largest party nationally.”

Ulrich Siegmund, lead candidate of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) celebrates a first exit poll win following state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Sept. 6, 2026, in Magdeburg, Germany. Omer Messinger/Getty

Froelich predicted the major parties that have led Germany for decades would eventually fail to maintain the firewall keeping his own out of power.”

If the AfD continues to rise towards 35% nationally … and comes to represent more than one third of voters, this approach will sooner or later become impossible to sustain,” he said.”

While electoral popularity alone may not compel other parties to cooperate with a movement they consider a threat to Germany’s constitutional order, the AfD argues it has already forced its mainstream rivals to change their own policies.”

“Calls for rigorous border controls, a cap on migration or a stronger emphasis on national interests were long portrayed as politically unacceptable,” Mary Khan, another AfD politician, told CBS News. “Today, many of these positions are being openly discussed even within the CDU, and far beyond.”

From political outsider to presidential contender

Few European politicians illustrate the transformation of the continent’s right wing more clearly than France’s Marine Le Pen. An early October survey found Le Pen would likely garner between 31% and 36% of first-round votes in a national election, leading her nearest rival by at least 11 percentage points. France’s next presidential election will be held in April.

For years, Le Pen has worked to distance her National Rally (RN) party, formerly the National Front, from the extremist reputation it held from the time of its inception at the hands of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.”

This is an interesting development for a Europe that has been very liberal in its political leaning for the last 70+ years since 1957 when The Treaties of Rome created the European Economic Community (EEC) and Euratom, taking effect in 1958 and the creation of the European Union and the free movement of people across the continent with open borders.

But for Bible Students this is more what we expect to see with a strong Europe to match the Biblical Prophecies of the time of then end when Europe will align with Russia and strong leadership as they form the political and military alignment referred to in the Bible as The King of the North.

Germany has also stepped to say that they plan to have the strongest army in Europe rearmanment movement in response to President Trumps insistance that Europe must do more.

The Bible has long revealed that Russia and an EU Army will enter into a final conflict with Israel and the Middle East.  Germany is the key country in what Bible Prophecy refers to as the land of “Magog”. They are spoken of militarily as the “King of the North”.  Together the Bible says that Russia and the EU will invade the Middle East in the Last Days.  So Bible Students expect to see Germany taking a greater role in leading Europe.  It is also interesting to see Germany taking greater control of a continent they tried to take by war and failed.

Yet again we see in Todays News Headlines words that show how the Nations are fulfilling the latter day alignment of Nations as Prophesied by the Bible. 

See this article to learn more about this and the latter day prophecies of the Bible.

See this article for more on this subject: 

BIBLE PROPHECY AND THE ALIGNMENT OF NATIONS