Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
a real hardcore far-right party (BNP's Hungarian ally Jobbik) looks set to receive double digits

As a rule of thumb, I'd say 1/6 of the vote going to xenophobic parties should be considered 'normal' in Europe. It's when they start polling above 20% and becoming the second largest party (or the first!) as in the Swiss SVP or Wilders in the Netherlands that one can talk about something anomalous going on.

Often this vote will be hidden in mainstream right-wing parties and the explicitly senophobic options remain marginal (as in Spain) but it doesn't mean that 1/6 of the voters aren't xenophobes.

The brainless should not be in banking -- Willem Buiter

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Apr 2nd, 2010 at 09:49:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Based on the polls, Jobbik has a decent chance of becoming the second party, and a slight chance of passing 20%. In addition, Jobbik's success is a failure of the main right-wing party to integrate the total right-wing spectrum that was not for lack of trying: they have anti-Gypsy and anti-semitic idiots on-board, too, so the circle is wider than Jobbik. But wait for my election diary next week for some more details.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Fri Apr 2nd, 2010 at 01:25:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:

Occasional Series