The European Elections
A promising shift to the Right.
The results of elections to the so-called European Parliament show that the peoples of our mother continent are at long last showing signs of resistance to–indeed, incipient revolt against–the cosmopolitan elites that have for so long misruled them.
Across the European Union, populist, rightist and anti-establishment parties have scored remarkably well, though the outcomes vary significantly from country to country. The EU has a website that gives the results for each country, both for this year and for the previous election in 2009.
Speaking in the most general terms, it is possible to identify two broad families of ideas among the insurgent parties. The first is essentially our own. With marked differences of emphasis, the parties of this tendency broadly agree that while a shared language, culture, and religion are important, a nation is in essence a kin group or extended family. I will call this current of thought “identitarian.”
The second is essentially libertarian in inspiration. It is concerned about individual rights and economic freedoms, not group interests or national identity. Americans will recognize this kind of “rightist” party all too well.
By far the most important breakthrough for the identitarian tendency is the stunning success of the Front National in France. It has polled over 25 percent of the popular vote, some 4 percent more than the fractious establishment conservative UMP party, and is now the largest party in France in terms of electoral support. It will take 24 seats in the European Parliament, up from only three from the previous election. . . .
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