Even before this June’s elections to the European parliament, the EU has lost its center. It seems the bloc can no longer count on the EU-wide liberal political group, known as Renew, as the needle of the scales.

The most recent example was France’s president Emmanuel Macron. He promised to beat the far right — only to pass an immigration law reliant on the Rassemblement National’s support. Whether due to his neoliberal policies, his rhetoric now hybridized with far-right propaganda, or outright complicity, Macron has paved the way for Marine Le Pen to succeed him as president. We could say the same about Renew’s main Dutch affiliate (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, VVD) with regard to that country’s perennial anti-immigration candidate Geert Wilders.

The paradox is that the liberals who were supposed to act as a barrier to the far right are themselves providing it with a Trojan horse. Some of Europe’s most influential centrist parties and governments are facilitating the normalization of the far right, or even incorporating its propaganda into their own. When it comes to antisocial and anticlimate policies, liberal parties like the German Free Democratic Party (FDP) bear a heavy responsibility.