In structurally weak regions
Funding: 100 euros per capita shrinks right-wing populists
April 9, 2024, 10:44 a.m
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In politics there is often confusion as to how the vote share of right-wing populists can be reduced. There are starting points, as a study by the IfW shows. Public investments, especially in structurally weak regions, make right-wing electoral successes much less likely.
According to a study, public investments in the development of structurally weak regions reduce support for right-wing populist parties in Europe. In supported regions, their vote share fell on average by 15 to 20 percent, according to the paper by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW). The influence of European regional funding on the results of European elections was examined. At the same time, trust in democratic institutions has increased while dissatisfaction with the EU has decreased. The support of left-wing populist parties therefore remained unaffected.
“Ahead of the European elections in June, right-wing populist parties are on the rise in almost all member states,” said study co-author Robert Gold. “Our research shows that regional funding can effectively counteract this trend.”
Gold and his co-author Jakob Lehr from the University of Mannheim analyzed European election results in 27 EU countries from 1999 to 2019 to determine the impact of EU regional policy on the regional vote shares of populist parties. From 2000 to 2020, the EU invested more than 900 billion euros in regional development over three funding periods, primarily from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Cohesion Fund (KF). Concrete measures have been defined and co-financed by the national and regional governments.
Over the entire study period, a supported region received an average of around 1.4 billion euros in EU subsidies for regional development, which corresponds to around 530 euros per capita. As a result, the vote share of right-wing populist parties fell by two to three percentage points. 100 euros of EU regional funding per capita reduced the vote share of right-wing populist parties in an average region by 0.5 percentage points.
The authors see the reason for the decline in votes as being that EU regional funding has increased trust in democratic processes and the EU institutions in the supported regions. The basis for the assessment is survey data from well over 100,000 households.