As the 2014 European elections draw near, far-Right parties such as France’s Front National are planning a new political bloc that could have a lasting impact on the continent. Some parties, like Golden Dawn, are too extreme to join. Others, like Ukip, are reluctant to be associated with the radical right.
As the European elections draw near, polls show that radical Right parties from 12 out of the 28 European Union countries are expected to win representation. Such an outcome has the potential to install 44 far-Right MEPs – an increase of almost 20 per cent since the last elections in 2009 – in the European Parliament.
Golden Dawn – the Greek grassroots party that refers to Hitler as “a great personality” – is expected to win two seats; Jobbik, the notorious Hungarian ultranationalist party, is likely to win four.
But the real threat comes from a subtler force: a burgeoning European phenomenon known as the “new far Right”, of which the Sweden Democrats is a part. These parties, the most prominent of which is the Front National of Marine le Pen, have gone to great pains to sanitise both their message and the manner in which it is delivered. The jackboots, skinheads and slogans have been consigned to the past. Instead, in their sharp suits and ties, their politicians look almost respectable.
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