# Europe’s centrists are finally paying the price of their extremism

https://mins.news/en/item/70397

- Al Jazeera, 2026-09-23 10:02 UTC
- Politics
- Original: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/9/23/europes-centrists-are-finally-paying-the-price-of-their-extremism?traffic_source=rss

> 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.

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