The European Parliament is preparing to welcome the most powerful extreme right that the Old Continent has seen since the 1930s. Ignacio Ramonet discusses the factors behind this disturbing political development in a translation by Tom Gill from the French original.
One thing is certain: the European elections in late May will result in an overall rise of the far-right vote. And the arrival in the European Parliament of a wave of new ultra-right members. Currently they are gathered in two groups: the European Alliance for Freedom (EAF) and the Alliance of European National Movements (AENM). In all 47 MEPs, barely 6% of 766 euroseats. And after May 25? Double? Sufficient to block the decisions of the European Parliament and therefore the functioning of the European Union? Continue reading
Ed Miliband is constantly under-estimated. He is not as charismatic as Blair, but he is principled in a way that Blair was not, and in politics that is priceless. He is also brave while Blair was not. Blair opted to define himself by taking on his own party and by deferentially siding with those with power, whether big business executives and bankers in Britain or the US president internationally whether Clinton as a Democrat or GW Bush as a Republican – the ideology didn’t matter, it was the shouldering up to power. 
The praeternatural calm that has descended on the financial markets after Merkel-Sarkozy declared a ‘comprehensive’ bargain on Monday is unlikely to survive the Friday summit as the details sink in about what is involved, and even more about what is left out. Meanwhile back in Britain there is sound and fury from the Tory Right about a referendum as though the future of Europe and the Euro were just a convenient hook on which to pin the real action, the repatriation of powers from Brussels. Nothing suggests better how the Tory party is now marooned on the margins while the great issues of Europe are fought out without any significant British input. 