The only countries in Europe that I would be apprehensive about are Austria, which did, after all, welcome the Nazis back in 1938; Romania, which has a nasty rightwing party; and Hungary, where the Roma are a big issue.
Because the Flemish, Danish, Bulgarian, Greek and Italian versions aren't nasty? ...or because the author doesn't know them and their actions/rhetoric that well?
the one thing on which you can rely is that far-right parties will fall out with each other, so they are unlikely to form a mass European movement.
They may fall out with each other, then again, they may join forces for tactical benefit. Their thirties-forties ancestors showed how that can be done. (Think of Mussolini's treatment of ethnic Germans in South Tyrol while they were best friends with Hitler, or the allies of Hitler during WWII who were to grab each others' teritories while fighting together on the Eastern Front.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
It's not a banalisation of hard right ideas, it's a victory of pro-capitalist parties, of course! In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Now, Le Pen's ideas have been swallowed and promoted by the right, and brought into the mainstream. And that's better? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Mussolini and Hitler did IIRC fall out regularly over Hitler's designs on Austria (then also ruled by a fascist regime), which only ended as Italy became the clearly weaker state and sought a formal alliance with Germany to provide support for its failing wars of expansion.
I did not attempt to draw a full picture in that comment -- in fact, I could say that I was trying to draw a more complex picture than that historian... As an overall point, you seem to argue against the position that there is an Europe-wide big expansion of the far-right right now, which I did not make. For a more detailed review of my views on this, see my loooong reply to Jeffersonian Democrat.
none of these parties hold significant power
Lega Nord is part of Berlusconi's government, with heavy influence on policy. The current Anders Fogh Rasmussen III cabinet in Denmark survives with outside support from DF (though JakeS is to say what is their influence on current policies). Though not among those making advances in the EP election, BZÖ rules Carynthia, while SNS is part of Slovakia's governing coalition (again with heavy influence, esp. education policy).
mutual quasi-historical claims on large parts of the neighbours territory
Elsewhere, I already argued that the cooperation of a subset of European parties is possible.
As for Mussolini and Hitler, do the final circumstances of cooperation really matter? Such imbalances of power and dependencies may emerge during an eventual future second rise of the European far-right, too.
What should count here is that Hitler 'allowed' the Italianisation of South Tyrol even when the Third Reich was dominant. Also, regarding quasi-historical claims on large parts of the neighbours territory, I referred to (without naming them) the Tyso, Horthy, Szálasi and Antonescu regimes; in Slovakia, Hungary and Romania respectively; which had designs on each others' territories (well, Horthy resp. Szálasi on the territories of the other two while the other two mostly on what they already lost to Hungary in Vienna I + II) while Hitler had designs on the territories of all -- yet they kept the alliance and fought on together on the Eastern Front. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
