As Europe's far right surges, North Africa immigration takes center stage

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally trounced President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party in the first round of the French parliamentary elections last month, continuing the far-right emergence seen across the wider European continent.

Although Le Pen's party fell behind in the second round on Sunday to a leftist alliance, there have been other instances of the far-right remerging across Europe this year. In the European elections last month, centrists lost out significantly to far-right candidates in countries including France, Germany and Italy. In these countries, green and liberal parties were sacrificed on the altar of populism and anti-immigration sentiment. 

Although the left-wing Labour Party won by a landslide in the UK election in the early hours of Friday, Reform UK, the party run by far-right firebrand Nigel Farage, made widespread gains as voters became disenchanted with the larger parties.

Having more hard-liners in power across Europe will impact EU policy toward North Africa, which has proven to be an invaluable energy partner since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and Western countries sanctioned Russian oil and gas in response.