Looking forward 2024: Radical parties stand to gain from anti-immigrant rhetoric in European elections

“They’re poisoning the blood of our country.”

This phrase was used by the top Republican contender for the US presidential election, Donald Trump, while promising to crack down on immigration.

Reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s racist ideology, the shocking phrase captured headlines in the US and beyond, and yet, this way of speaking about immigrants seemingly surprised few in 2023.

The expiring year was one in which anti-immigration parties and candidates finished with more power than ever.

In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, a career politician who once called for “fewer Moroccans” is gunning to be the country’s next prime minister. In the United Kingdom, many expect next year’s general election to be dominated by migration issues, especially after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (a third generation immigrant) warned of people “deliberately driving people to our shores to try to destabilise our society.”

Even locally, debates surrounding Malta’s dependency on foreign workers will inevitably involve comments on how foreigners are here to steal jobs and rob us of our culture.

This wave of anti-immigration rhetoric comes as European voters are about to elect a new European Parliament in June. MaltaToday asked academics Maria Pisani and Jean Claude Cachia for their thoughts on why anti-immigration rhetoric seems to be more popular than ever, and what one can expect over the coming months.

The appeal of anti-immigration rhetoric

Left to right: Jean Claude Cachia and Maria Pisani

Maria Pisani from the University of Malta’s Faculty for Social Wellbeing said the anti-immigration rhetoric in Malta is not unique in the EU.

“The government adopted a market model of immigration that is geared towards utilitarian needs, temporary work/residence and limiting rights, rather than the liberal model that Maltese emigrants benefited from in the past, where the onus was on settlement and a clear route to citizenship and belonging,” she said.

When one considers the speed and scale in which this happened, it’s no surprise people feel disorientated, Pisani noted. Couple this with constant construction and rapid changes even when it comes to mundane rituals like speaking to a waiter in Maltese, a sense of insecurity is inevitable.

Pisani explained that even though there is a reliance on migrant labour, government’s immigration model does not focus on fostering a sense of belonging, inclusion, or community. Instead, it appears to perpetuate the division between migrants and citizens, creating a dichotomy of ‘us’ versus ‘them’.

“The problems are systemic and political, in the absence of an alternative model, the ‘solution’ becomes a blame game. Migrants are not voters, and so they embody a convenient scapegoat,” she argued.

Using immigrants as a scapegoat seems to be effective in increasing candidates’ popularity but for Pisani this tactic as “disingenuous, divisive and violent.”

What this means for European elections

Unsurprisingly, migration will be a key issue across the EU during the next EP elections, Jean Claude Cachia from UOM’s Institute for European Studies told this newspaper. He noted that migration has long been one of the EU’s weak points.

Years of political impasse were broken by the European Union in December when an agreement was reached that would drastically alter how the EU restricts immigration, transfers migrants between member states, and essentially makes it easier to deport rejected asylum seekers.

“Still, many are sceptical on whether this will lead to any radical changes in the EU’s approach towards migration,” Cachia noted.

Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri has gone on record with his doubts on what many have billed a ‘historic pact’, insisting the agreement provides no guarantee for frontline states like Malta.

Cachia said states like Italy are turning to independent solutions, one of which involves reaching agreements with countries like Albania to set up asylum centres within their borders.

“So various parties are now embracing radical solutions to tackle the problem. We have to see how the European Union (and the Council of Europe) will react and whether these solutions can help mainstream parties from containing the rise of far-right parties across Europe,” Cachia said.

The European Studies lecturer explained how radical solutions seem even more appealing to the electorate in the case of EP elections, as these are widely seen as “second-order” elections. “Voters will vote on issues which are important to them and beyond party loyalty and identification, they will choose a party which they think will tackle the problem,” Cachia said.

On top of that, protest voting is also widespread in these elections, increasing the likelihood of electing extreme parties and candidates.

Indeed, it seems that during the first half of 2024, migration will dominate debates in the run-up to the EP elections, with parties such as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and even Norman Lowell’s Imperium Europa standing to gain from the general dissatisfaction at the current state of affairs.

Whether mainstream parties will also take the bait and adopt the language of xenophobia the closer the election gets, remains to be seen.