The European Parliament shifted to the right not because the centre-right won the EU elections, but rather due to the Socialists' inability to convince voters that they can tackle the economic crisis, Simon Hix, professor at the London School of Economics, told EurActiv in an interview.

Why did the Socialists do so badly?

It is astonishing. Across Europe, social democrats, regardless of whether they are in government or in opposition, have done very badly, while the centre-right in government has done quite well, like in Poland, France, Italy and even Germany.

Something systematic is going on. Two factors: mainstream centre-right parties in most places have adopted the agenda of social democrats, i.e. they are now in favour of public spending, as a result of the economic crisis. There is no particular difference between the centre-right and centre-left, but the centre-right told the electors: You should trust us more, because we know how to run the economy better than they can.

In the meantime, the people really affected by the economic crisis and by large-scale immigration, which we have seen in the last decade in Europe, are all white, indigenous social democratic voters, who are predominantly voting either for the far-right or the far-left.

In Britain, these votes went to the Greens and the BNP. In France, they've gone to the Greens and to the Communists, in Germany to Die Linke and the Greens, in Hungary they went to Jobbik, in Finland to the True Finns, in Denmark to the Danish People's Party, and in the Netherlands to Geert Wilders.

So you go around Europe and you see no particular difference between the centre-right and centre-left, but the centre-right said to the electors: You should trust us more because we know how to run the economy better than they can.

It is not the centre-right winning, but rather the centre-left going down, and the votes are shifting to extremist parties.