France and the EU voters have joined to bring back a political system that gave the world nothing

[CK_John]

but death and destruction. Why don't we learn?

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. History doesn't repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.

You can blame the upswing in nationalism and xenophobia on the lingering effects of the 2008 crash. Not that different to what happened in Europe in the '30's after the German inflation crisis of the early '20's and then the crash in 1929.

[adirondacker]

4. Throw in some austerity and it's a perfect blend to divide. Everyone for themselves. nt

[kysrsoze]

2. Yeah, same shit is going on in U.K., Greece, Russia, ... oh, and the U.S.

And in every country it's the same B.S... finding a scapegoat (or many) to really against, and having a complete blindness to a group of lucky sperm club members above them who are taking everything away from these poor saps and everyone just like them... AND doing so by manipulating their pathetic need to have a scapegoat. They would rather deny anything is wrong or blame someone, than deal with the problem. How utterly lazy.

And how quickly we forget our history. I'm beginning to wonder if this a second human nature... caused by to some chromosomal problem that affects half the population

[blkmusclmachine]

3. Question is, who is "counting" all those votes for the NeoNazis?!?!

[former9thward]

11. Are you alleging fraud?

The same people are counting the votes who always count the votes. Nobody in Europe is alleging fraud, but you are?

[moondust]

5. Reactionaries.

It's hard to blame voters for wanting a big change from a status quo that seems to be going nowhere or making things worse. There's plenty of that sentiment here, too. I guess one must carefully consider the alternatives and remember that not all change is for the better.

I thought Europe was more politically astute than this.

[DonCoquixote]

7. If you are bleeding

The solution is not to take a razor to your flesh and bleed more. I would have expected this from us Yanks, who never really want to belive that those good rich white guys with guns are evil, but where the hell does the EU get off with this? Electingpeople further LEFT, yes!, but voting people who would actually be to the right of us yanks?

[LeftOfSelf-Centered]

9. The problem is that there is no further left...

After the Reagan/Thatcher 80s, the fall of the Eastern block and the relative prosperity of the 90s there is very little true economic left-wing left. Most major social-democratic parties started patterning themselves after the electoral successes of the people like Clinton, Blair and Schroeder. One side-effect of this was that anything to the left of them was further and further marginalized, sometimes to the point of complete irrelevance. For decades now we have been told that their left-wing economic policies are outdated and ridiculous.

Many voters in their 20s have never experienced a time in which left-wing economic policy was considered viable, or was proposed by a major party.

Now years of economic crisis and austerity have turned a lot of people against the establishment parties. And that is fertile ground for the easy populism of the far right. It's much easier to blame a scapegoat than to explain how left-wing economic policy would be beneficial to everyone.

[betterdemsonly]

6. Maybe it is because we don't pay attention

and think it is caused by racism rather than traitorous politicians like Hollande who demoralized voters by governing as an austerian right winger. This is going to happen in the UK too.

[TheKentuckian]

8. There seems to be a humongous blind spot to the actions of any politicians, not just their's but our

own too.

Some are so all about it that they have taken to white washing BushCo. to the point where I see little basis for the animosity toward that wicked regime other than pure partisanship.

[Iterate]

10. A lot easier to deal with when you realize that's not fucking true.

The "EU voters" have made no such choice. I don't know where people get such ideas.

The shifts I assume you are alluding to are confined to NP in France and UKIP in the UK, where the increase in support has largely come from cannibalizing other right-side parties. The German right has effectively shattered into many bits, each of them weak.

Compare to the 2009 vote. The center-right EPP (Christian Democrats) lost over 7 points. There's a few percent shift overall, that's it. The new members are not yet aligned with another group. They can either join another group or warm a chair for the next five years.

Europe on course for ‘grand coalition’ after election
26/05/2014 - 08:05

Despite a rise in anti-European parties, political balances remained broadly unchanged in the European Parliament following the elections yesterday (25 May), with the centre-right and centre-left parties on track for a grand coalition.

The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) won 212 seats in the European parliament, followed by the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), with 186 seats (out of 751).

In the last European election, the EPP won 265 seats and the S&D 184. The Parliament was slightly larger at the time, counting a total of 766 seats.

This is the fourth consecutive victory for the EPP since the 1999 election and another disappointment for the Socialists, who failed to reverse the balance of power in Parliament, despite the popular resentment over austerity.

The centrist liberal groups could got 70 seats, Green parties 55 and the right-wing Conservatives and Reformist group, 44.

The far-left obtained 43 seats, while the far-right Europe of Freedom and Democracy group got 36.

The big question mark relates to the 38 Non-affiliated MEPs and the 67 “other” MEPs who do not yet belong to any political grouping. Most of those belong to populist and extremist parties hostile to European integration.

http://www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-elections-2014/europe-course-grand-coalition-after-election-302386

[bemildred]

12. Austerity often leads to right-wing populiam.

You'd think they would learn.