THE RISE OF RADICAL POLITICS IN EUROPE

FRANCE: Socialist Francois Hollande wins the election, but the far-right movement also gains support.

GREECE: Neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn secures 21 seats in parliament.

ITALY: The centre-left Democratic party aligns with the far-left, including the communist party.

SPAIN: The rise of the Los Indignados, a protest movement.

NETHERLANDS: Far-right politician Geert Wilders brings down the government.


VIDEO: Stephen Long on the growing power of extreme parties in Europe - 7.30 (7.30)

European voters are increasingly turning to radical parties of the left and right in an outright rejection of the eurozone's austerity program.

Nicolas Sarkozy, one of the key architects of the scheme, has been pushed from power, squeezed between a socialist leader promising to spend his way out of trouble and a resurgent far right whipping up anti-immigration sentiment.

In Greece the situation was even more marked, with furious voters turning their backs on the main parties, placing a coalition of the far left in the best position to form government, and handing the Nazi-linked Golden Dawn seats in parliament for the first time.

News Online takes a look at the latest rise of radical politics in Europe:

FRANCE



PHOTO: Millions of French rallied behind Ms Le Pen's xenophobic and anti-euro rhetoric. (Reuters: Benoit Tessier)

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While the French election saw the socialist Francois Hollande take power, it was also marked by the rise of the far right's Marine Le Pen, who secured 18 per cent of the vote in the first round of the presidential elections.

Ms Le Pen, the daughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, campaigned strongly on a xenophobic and anti-European theme, vowing to cut immigration and calling for France to leave the eurozone.

Despite the far left and right candidates failing to make it past the first round of votes, their extreme rhetoric and rejection of austerity was reflected by the main parties.

Mr Hollande has vowed to look beyond austerity for ways to rescue Europe from the ongoing debt crisis, while throughout his campaign Mr Sarkozy made overtures to the far right, saying France had too many foreigners, promising to tighten borders and inflaming anti-Islamic sentiment in the country.

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GREECE


VIDEO: Journalists forced to stand for Golden Dawn leader

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Crippled by debt, Greece has borne the brunt of the European austerity drive, pushing the country to the brink of collapse, sending unemployment soaring and thousands out onto the streets in protest.

Attempts to implement the austerity packages had already claimed one prime minister, and Sunday's election was an emphatic repudiation of both mainstream parties who supported the measures imposed by Brussels.

Casting doubts over Greece's future in the eurozone, furious voters turned their backs on the centre right's New Democracy and the socialist Pasok Party.

In a sign of the desperation and anger over the situation Greece finds itself in, the Nazi-linked Golden Dawn party received 7 per cent of the vote, which secures it 21 seats in the parliament.

While New Democracy won 18 per cent of the vote, the largest of any party, its efforts to form a coalition failed, leaving the leftist Syriza in position to form a coalition government focused on annulling the country's loan agreement.

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ITALY




PHOTO: Italian comedian Beppe Grillo is among a wave of independents who favour exiting the euro. (AFP: Marcello Paternostro)

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While Italy is currently being run a by a non-elected government appointed last year to help the country navigate its way through the euro crisis, Italians have used recent local elections to express their anger at the major parties' handling of the situation.

The biggest casualty has been former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, which failed to to make the second round of voting in local elections in the cities of Geno, Verona, and Palermo.

Instead the centre-left Democratic Party will contest the elections against a range of independents and smaller parties, and has itself in several areas united with movements from the far left such as the re-founded communist party.

Among the new forces on the rise is the 5 Star Movement, headed up by comedian Beppe Grillo, whose public tirades against the established parties have resonated with a country weary of government corruption and scandals.

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SPAIN




PHOTO: Thousands of Spaniards, disillusioned with the current political system, have joined the protest movement.
(AFP: Dani Pozo)

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While Spain's recent Franco past has dampened the rise of the extreme right, the country is struggling under the weight of austerity measures, unemployment sits at 23 per cent and the government is facing an uphill battle to reduce the Spanish deficit to 5.3 per cent of GDP.

The economic malaise galvanised protest movements across the country, such as the Los Indignados, which was seen by many as the template for the global Occupy movement.

While the movement failed to translate into electoral victory in 2011, it engaged a section of the Spanish population disillusioned with the current dominance of the two centre parties.

The movement also resulted in the rise of neighbourhood assemblies, informal groupings across the country which have provided Spaniards with a channel for their concerns outside the restrictions of tradition politics.

Most recently, thousands of protestors took to the streets during May Day, to protest over the government's economic policies.

NETHERLANDS




PHOTO: Rightwing firebrand Geert Wilders's decision to oppose
Dutch austerity measures brought a government down. (Marcel Antonisse: Reuters)

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Home to perhaps the most prominent of Europe's far-right politicians, Geert Wilders, the Netherlands government was recently brought down after the anti-Islamic firebrand refused to support budget cuts aimed at reducing the public-spending deficit to a level compliant with EU rules.

Mr Wilders had been the king-maker in the Dutch coalition, but his gambit backfired, with a caretaker government managing to pass the budget.

His party has been falling in popularity but still commands a sizeable amount of the country's vote.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-08/extremists-on-the-rise-in-europe/3997198

Sprintcyclist wrote on May 14^th, 2012 at 1:28pm:



Which could be a very cunning move.  When they're broke, there won't be any more money to pay the africans and muslims welfare anymore.  They'll go back home, and France will be saved!  Well, either that or they'll riot and trash the joint beyond repair.....

Europe has always been a hotbed of Extremism. That's what happens when you have a whole group of Nations essentially made up of arrogant, lazy, self righteous flogs.

Whinger.

you forgot hungary's jobbik