The outcome of the recent European Parliament elections is described in press and political circles in Europe and North America as a shock or crisis, but the actual reaction is better named hysteria, as if "Europe" is all over, and the rise of the right in these elections resembles the rise of fascism in the 1930s — all of which is sheer nonsense.
What this vote has done is contribute 150 anti-"Europe" members to a parliamentary body numbering 751 seats in total, which has very little power over the functions of the European Union executive — the appointed Commission and the Council (the governing body, composed of ministers from member-governments, under a rotating presidency). Its power bears no resemblance to the power of the national parliaments in EU member states.
Furthermore, while some of the extremist national parties — Golden Dawn in Greece, Jobbik in Hungary, DF in Denmark, PVV in the Netherlands, Northern League in Italy, for example — are anti-Roma (Gypsy) on racial grounds or attributed criminality, guardedly anti-Semitic, or identify the Islamic religion and its adherents as enemies of European civilization, these are minuscule in number and followers.
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