In Europe, the far right fringe is in Parliament far right moves in

The centre-right, social democrats and liberals together have more than 400 seats in the European Parliament (EP) which will be inaugurated on July 18. That might put them in a comfortable position vis-a-vis the far right in the 720-member House.

But Europe’s mainstream parties will be erring in ignoring the fault lines and points of dissonance that are behind extreme nationalists and anti-immigration parties getting more than 130 seats — about 20 per cent of the votes — in the EP elections. The House will also have 34 additional hard right members drawn from Poland, Bulgaria, Germany’s AfD and Viktor Orbán’s Hungarian Fidesz party.

The numbers suggest that the far and hard right could be the second-largest group in the EP behind the traditional conservatives, the European People’s Party. Europe’s extreme right is not a cohesive force, yet the group’s sheer size would mean significant rightward pressure on EU policies.