PoliticsEurope’s centrists are finally paying the price of their extremism

The article argues that centrists’ blind adherence to austerity has devastated European societies. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his CDU are suffering record-low approval and electoral setbacks as deindustrialisation and stagnation become impossible to ignore, helping fuel the far-right AfD. It says France and the UK have followed the same path, producing a wider political backlash.

European politicsausterityGermanyfar right

AAl Jazeera★★★☆☆2026-09-23 10:02Original