For Europe’s Right, Ukraine Has Become the Defining Test: The war in Ukraine exposed the faultlines that divide Europe’s right-wing populist parties, primarily over whether to fully support Ukraine’s resistance or push for a negotiated peace with Russia. These faultlines are still visible after three years of war and amidst sweeping right-wing electoral gains across the continent. What was once a quiet split on Ukraine policy is now a defining question for Europe’s right. Now, Trump is accelerating the need for a decision.
On one side of the right-wing divide are leaders like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Dutch populist Geert Wilders, and France’s National Rally under Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella. Despite their anti-establishment origins, these politicians have embraced Ukraine’s fight as a patriotic defense of national sovereignty.
Meloni, elected in 2022 as the head of “Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II,” has consistently pledged full support for Ukraine. Her position is motivated by a sense of justice, and she has gone so far as to propose NATO-like security guarantees for Kyiv without immediate membership in the transatlantic alliance.
Similarly, Wilders, long a fixture of Europe’s populist right, has taken a pro-Ukraine stance following his party’s recent electoral success.
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