In a bumper year for elections, risk professionals are monitoring political risk, but remain "unperturbed" as regards a rise of the far right.

Whilst 31% of risk professionals canvassed for Airmic’s latest Big Question poll say they have been monitoring EU politics, for 63% of risk professionals, it will be ‘business as usual’.

Far right parties have surged in the elections, prompting French president Emmanuel Macron to call snap parliamentary elections in an effort to counter the trend. Macron’s party secured less than half the seats won by the anti-immigration National Rally of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella in this month’s European Parliament elections.

Commenting on the results, Hoe-Yeong Loke, head of research, Airmic, said: “Traditionally, European Parliament elections have tended to attract protest votes, because some voters don’t regard them as important as national elections, which have a more direct impact on their lives. But seen together with the electoral trends in national elections in EU member states of late, we need to start thinking of elections as being interconnected and start preparing for them.”

This ‘year of elections’ was one of the key themes at Airmic’s annual conference in Edinburgh last week.

Commenting on the political risk outlook, BBC presenter Clive Myrie, who moderated the plenary panels at the conference, said: “My biggest takeaway for businesses is to be prepared for all scenarios – and hope that whichever scenario does come to pass, you're prepared. And that removes uncertainty, and frankly, that’s the biggest risk for business.”

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