BRUSSELS — The only results to cheer in the recent European Parliament elections came from Greece, where PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) went up to nine seats, and Ireland, where the financial crisis and public re-evaluation of regulation saw the Irish Labour party win two to three seats. Meanwhile, the sugar daddy of the transnational Libertas Party, Declan Ganley, failed to win a seat.
But before we look at the continental calamities, it is instructive to start in my home country, Britain. The bad news was the twin victories of the BNP (British National Party). Andrew Brons, former activist in the National Socialist Movement and the National Front, edged out Labour's Richard Corbett of Yorkshire and Humberside, and Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, scraped by with fewer than 1,300 votes in the North West.
UKIP (U.K. Independence Party) was resurrected as a result of the Westminster expenses scandal, although the concerted campaign of "Love Music, Hate Racism" and "Hope not Hate" prevented an anticipated wider breakthrough. In the East Midlands, the BNP would have won a seat in 2004 on their recent vote, but failed this time because the region was down one seat following EU expansion to include Romania and Bulgaria. Still, it is difficult not to be dismayed over England's electing fascist and extreme-right members of Parliament for the first time.