Residents in all 27 countries of the European unx went to the polls this weekend to vote for the European Parliament, which resulted in a surge of support for far-right parties across much of the continent while many liberal and Green parties stumbled. Far-right parties did especially well in Italy, Germany and France, prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to dissolve the National Assembly and call snap elections. Lawmakers in the European Parliament can veto and shape laws, though they cannot introduce them. They also set the EU's budget and approve the sextion of the European Commission president — a powerful role currently held by Ursula von der Leyen of the center-right European People's Party, which remains the strongest bloc. For more on European politics, we speak with Mehreen Khan, the economics editor at The Times of London and a former Brussels and EU correspondent for the Financial Times. Khan says that while some observers celebrated the relative strength of mainstream conservative parties, that is more a reflection of how successful racist, nationalist parties have been in reshaping the continent's politics, particularly on immigration. "These formerly center-right parties are now definitely occupying territory that we used to call that of the far right," she says.

本周末，歐盟的27個成員國居民前往投票站選舉歐洲議會，結果顯示在大部分歐洲大陸上，極右翼黨派獲得了強勁的支持，而許多自由派和綠黨則表現(xiàn)不佳。意大利、德國和法國的極右翼黨派尤其取得了良好的成績，引發(fā)法國總統(tǒng)埃馬紐埃爾·馬克龍解散國民議會并宣布臨時選舉。歐洲議會議員可以否決和制定法律，但不能提出法案。他們還審批歐盟的預算并批準歐盟委員會主席的任命 —— 目前這一重要職位由中右翼的歐洲人民黨主席烏爾蘇拉·馮德萊恩（擔任，該黨仍然是最強大的政治集團。有關歐洲政治更多信息，請聽倫敦時報的經濟編輯、前《金融時報》布魯塞爾和歐盟記者梅赫林·汗的講解。汗表示，盡管一些觀察者對主流保守派的相對強勢感到欣喜，但這更多反映了種族主義、民族主義黨派在移民議題上重新塑造歐洲政治的成功?！斑@些曾經的中右翼政黨現(xiàn)在明顯地占據了我們過去稱之為極右翼的領域，”她說道。