The rise of far-right parties in governments across Europe raises concerns for science. Parties, whose focus is generally on immigration, pay little attention to research, political experts say. In the Netherlands – where the Party for Freedom (PVV), led by anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders, entered a coalition government in July – researchers are bracing for 1 billion euros (1.1 billion dollars) of budget cuts, the worst in decades.

“We are talking about historic reductions,” says Caspar van den Berg, president of the umbrella association of universities in the Netherlands. “It’s really striking how research, education and innovation are the hardest hit sectors.”

Italy, Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia have also elected governments including far-right parties. In June, populist parties made gains in the European Parliament elections. And in September, Austria’s far-right Freedom Party topped polls in parliamentary elections.

Although there are exceptions, these parties are generally not interested in research and innovation, says Léonie de Jonge, an expert on far-right parties at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, leaving scientists vulnerable to budget cuts.

Deep cuts

The Netherlands – which plays a major role in global science – is among the countries experiencing drastic changes in its research system. The government’s budget last month revealed a cut of almost €1 billion a year to universities and research, slashing support for early career research grants, open science and international students .

These cuts would amount to the elimination of a single major university in a country with only 14, says van den Berg. Several universities have already frozen hiring this summer. The University of Amsterdam described the reductions as the biggest since the 1980s.

One of the biggest casualties of the budget are the start-up and recovery grants, introduced in 2022 to give new and existing academics a one-off grant of €300,000 to hire PhD students and lab assistants, for example.

“The aim of these grants was to create space for independent, curiosity-driven research, but also to reduce work pressure,” says Eddie Brummelman, president of the Young Academy, a science policy group in Amsterdam. Dutch academics have gone on strike several times in recent years due to heavy workloads.

But with these funds disappearing, young academics will be even more dependent on competitive grants from industry and the already oversubscribed Dutch Research Council (NWO), he says.

The NWO also faces budget cuts: the changes remove €30 million a year from its budget for science infrastructure. Its funds for open science are cut in half.

In another round of cuts, the new government scrapped the final installments of the Netherlands’ National Growth Fund, which supported green hydrogen projects and medical research, saving 6.8 billion euros.

Focus on immigration

International students are also in the government’s crosshairs. The coalition wants enrollment numbers to fall and is cutting almost €300 million from university education budgets to ensure this happens.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science said the government had chosen to prioritize safety, healthcare and ensuring “people have more money in their portfolio” (the government reduces personal taxes). “Unfortunately, for this to be possible, budget cuts are necessary in many areas, including education and science. »

The Dutch parliament is considering a “balanced internationalization” law, intended to curb the growth of English-language teaching and research, which has helped attract international talent.

What universities are concerned about is that if the law is passed, all undergraduate courses will have to seek permission to be taught in English or another foreign language.

It is not yet known how many courses will be forced to switch to Dutch, explains van den Berg. But the move could trigger an exodus of foreign academics who are unwilling or unable to teach in the language. “We fear a flight of the most talented people,” he says.

Policies align with the goals of parties whose central issue is immigration, says de Jonge. “It’s ultimately the only thing they care about,” she says. “Their voters don’t care about innovation.”

Although indifference to research is a concern, these parties are often also hostile to universities, seen as a bulwark of left-wing “indoctrination,” she adds, making higher education a tempting target for cuts.

Scientific negligence

In Italy, where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party took power in 2022, funding for universities has effectively been cut this year by around 500 million euros, leaving a budget of around 9 billion euros, said a spokesperson for the Conference of Rectors of Italian Universities. A government spokesperson countered that much of the drop was because funding had been brought forward to 2023.

Neglect of science is not always the preserve of the far right. France’s new center-right government has disappointed scientists by abandoning long-term budget increases as it attempts to reduce public debt.

But the rise of far-right parties obsessively focused on immigration bodes ill for research, says Robert-Jan Smits, chairman of the board of trustees of Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. . “These are single-theme parties,” he says. Regarding science, “they don’t really seem to care and they don’t have a policy.”