The Spanish could be next, with national elections in a week, then Holland and Germany could soon follow. Our map shows that more than a third of the EU’s 27 member nations are now run, or highly influenced, by populist-style governments or factions. All favour halting uncontrolled migration, tackling crime, promoting traditional families and pausing hated EU laws aimed at forcing people to alter their lifestyles to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The change in political outlook means the EU, a bloc rooted in technocratic social democracy, may soon become too liberal for the ordinary people living within its borders.

There is talk of Mediterranean countries such as Italy and France putting migrant-processing centres at their sea-borders to pause entry and weed out arrivals who don’t have legitimate asylum claims. Greece has already built a clutch of these on its islands to vet illegal boat migrants from North Africa. Europeans are telling their politicians to look after their own people first, amid soaring inflation and energy and food price rises. It is in this febrile atmosphere that a tumultuous political change is taking place across the continent.