German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has warned of the damage that the success of populists in the European elections could cause to the European Union.
“We have results in France, Austria and also in Germany that have given anti-European populists a remarkable increase in the number of votes,” Steinmeier told regional public radio station Bayerischer Rundfunk on Tuesday during an official visit to the southern state of Bavaria.
“If two or three large countries in the center of Europe show attempts at disintegration or disintegration tendencies, then that is not entirely harmless for Europe,” Steinmeier said. “These election results in Germany and France are something that should cause concern.”
There is also political work to be done in Germany, he said. The election results were different in the east of the country and in the west, and it did not help to constantly predict the country’s demise.
Politicians, he said, must try to meet the needs of the people in the right way. And they simply have to be present, he added.
The coronavirus pandemic was not the only reason why young people were now voting for the far right, Steinmeier said, but it had contributed to the problem.
“These are the long-term consequences of measures, especially for young people who have not yet been able to find their own way to deal with the situation, with the lockdown, with the closure of schools, but who have had no social contacts during that time. time.”
