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Right-wing populist parties gained significantly more votes than their left-wing counterparts in France and nearly every other member state in the 2024 EU elections.

The data comes from a study by the think-tank Fondapol.

In some countries right-wing parties received more than 40% of the vote, including Poland (48.2%), Czechia (46.6%), Latvia (45.5%) and Hungary (51.5%). 

In France, 38.8% of votes went towards populist right parties, the second-highest in western Europe behind Italy at 39%.

The tally for France includes mainly votes for the far-right Rassemblement National, who were the first French party to receive 30% or more of the vote share in EU elections in 40 years, as well as votes for the Les Républicains. 

The two belong to the Europe-wide Patriots for Europe and European People’s Party alliances respectively. 

In turn, the far-left La France Insoumise – the only ‘populist left’ party in France, according to Fondapol – received only 9.8% of the vote. It belongs to ‘The Left’ Europe-wide alliance of MEPs.

Across the EU, populist left parties performed far worse than their right-wing counterparts.

Only Finland, Slovakia, Ireland and Greece saw left-populist parties receive more votes than right-wing populists.

The graphs below show the respective vote share for populist left and right parties.

The high turnout for the far-right was reported to be one of the reasons French President Emmanuel Macron called the 2024 legislative elections immediately after the result. 

Mr Macron was hoping the results would jolt the anti-extremist population into voting against the far-right. 

The elections curtailed the far-right momentum – the RN finished as the single largest party but the far-right alliance came third out of the three main political blocs – but the decision led to a locked parliament.

New Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is the third appointed since September 2024, as the lack of a stable majority in the Assemblée nationale has further entrenched divisions.