Europe is witnessing a rise in extremist politics following a decline in moderate centrist representation in the European Parliament, said Finnish President Alexander Stubb during an interview with China Media Group (CMG) on Wednesday.
Stubb pointed out that disinformation is undermining centrist politics, allowing extremist right, left ideologies to gain traction.
"I don't necessarily agree with the thesis that there was a big move to a populist right. I think in Europe, there has been a move to extremes, both left and right. And there's sort of a lack of moderate center. And we're seeing it being gnawed from both sides. And a lot of that is about disinformation, in fact. So how do I see it? I think the first thing to understand is that Europe is imperfect. There's no such thing as a perfect society. So the European Union always advances on three phases; first, there's a crisis, secondly, there's chaos, and thirdly, there's some optimal solution. And what populists often do is they try to find simple solutions to complicated problems," he said.
"Just one gentle reminder, the European Union exists for four very simple reasons; peace, prosperity, security and stability. It's an imperfect union, which is more than an international organization but less than a state. And this is the mess that we are trying to solve in Europe. It's never pretty, but it seems to be working quite well," he said.
Stubb arrived in Beijing on Monday for a four-day state visit to China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Europe increasingly polarized amid growing influence of extreme ideologies: Finnish President
Europe increasingly polarized amid growing influence of extreme ideologies: Finnish President
Europe increasingly polarized amid growing influence of extreme ideologies: Finnish President
