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3 Eur. L. Open 1 (2024)

handle is hein.journals/eurlwop3 and id is 1 raw text is: European Law Open (2024), 3, 1-6                                     CAMBRIDGE
doi:10.1017/elo.2024.16                                               UNIVERSITY PRESS
EDITR AL
A few rermarks on the role of Europ and European
scho arship inr              wnrUd        f extrermes
Marija Bart
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Law School, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Email: M.Bartl@uva.nl
(Received 3 May 2024; accepted 7 May 2024)
Dear friends,
This is a goodbye editorial. After three wonderful years, I will be stepping down as a managing
editor of the European Law Open and continue as a 'simple' editor of this already great journal.
The main reason is that I have committed to help launch another project that I hope will serve the
European academic community equally well: European Law Unbound, a new scholarly Society,
about which more in one of the upcoming editorials. In this last editorial as a managing editor,
meanwhile, I wanted to share some of my concerns and hopes about the perspectives of European
law and scholarship after the June 2024 elections.
As Europeans, we have recently faced one of the most consequential European Parliament
elections ever. While predicted large gains for the far and extreme right did not fully materialise
(the overall seat increase is somewhere around 3%), the extreme right has done particularly well in
important European countries. The weeks of turmoil in France that have followed the European
elections have ended with a resounding 'non' to Le Ressemblement national, but the urgency to
deal with the cost of life crisis - the main fuel of anger - is likely to be hampered by the divided
parliament and the unheeding president. The extreme right has also dealt a blow (if smaller than
predicted just a couple of month ago) to German governing parties, while the Italian far right has
remained stable, with the elections nonetheless strengthening the grip on power by the prime
minister, whose attemps at a 'majority prize' alla the 1923 Acerbo Law,1 and the increasing
supression of media freedom, are highly concerning. The extreme and far right did well in many
other European countries, coming first in five EU member states, and second and third in many
others. Thus while perhaps not a heavy earthquake, the shivers are felt across the European
Union (EU).
As scholars of European law and integration, many of us have already started asking how the
changing political landscape, in Europe and nationally, may transform our field of study. Some
fear that the progress towards sustainability booked under the European Green Deal may be
arrested or even reversed. Others warn that the return to austerity after a short period of public
extravaganza during the corona crisis, successfully pushed through by the smallest German
coalition party, will not only undermine investment into crumbling infrastructures or
sustainability but also further escalate economic and cultural polarisation within and among
the Member States - driving even more people into the embrace of the far and extreme right. This
in turn, others warn, will bring the rule of law and democracy in Europe under additional strain.
1E Caterina, 'Prize and Premiership, Verfassungsblog' (28th November 2023), available at <https://verfassungsblog.de/
prize-and-premiership/> accessed 11 July 2024.
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.orglicenses/b)y/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction,
provided the original article is properly cited.

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