Tension in Europe's right wing

Leaders of the center-right European People's Party (EPP) group in the European Parliament met in Munich over three days recently to hammer out a common strategy ahead of Euro elections in May 2019. The main rival of Europe's conservatives is no longer the Social Democrats or the Socialists, who have seen political support plummet in recent years. Rather, it is the anti-systemic right or so-called populist right that has been attracting traditional center-right voters its way.

However, contrary to the communists and the socialists, who are animated by profoundly class-driven and internationalist ideology, the political credo of Europe's conservative parties is directly linked to the idea of the nation-state. This however has been constantly undermined by "common policy" in the areas of the economy and migration, as this has been shaped by Berlin. Thus the emergence of the...