According to the surveys, the National Front (FN) could be the winner of the 2014 European Parliament elections in France, with 24% of the votes. The news gained a greater dimension by winning the Fn in the second round of the Brignoles cantonal elections, with 53.90% of the votes. However, this is not new, the extreme right has already been in the parliaments and governments of various countries in Europe, and it is.

The discourse and political strategy of the extreme right are well known. They detect a social problem and rely on it to spread their reactionary and authoritarian ideology. I'm going to explain how it works with a simple example. If there are lots of burglaries in a neighborhood, that's a social problem. The reason would be a sociological problem: What causes there to be so many burglaries? However, the extreme right has no interest in the sociological problem, its intention is to exploit the fear generated by social problems by offering simple answers: if there has been an increase in crime on the streets and there are overburdened immigrants among the aggressors, then it will stigmatize that minority and propose to expel everyone to solve the social problem. In the same way, given the crisis situation we are experiencing, it is more important than ever for social aid to be increased, but neoliberal policies are happening the opposite, because social aid has decreased. This creates competition for these subsidies and, in general, as immigrants are among the most disadvantaged, they will also be represented among the recipients of these subsidies. Once again, the far right proposes a simple solution: “The first ones here.” Its strategy is easy to understand and effective, as in this way more firewood is thrown into the fire to delve into the sociological problem of crime, which generates more rejection towards immigrants.

The blindness that social problems can generate is imposed by diagnosing the sociological problem and implementing policies to cope with it. However, the capacity and willingness of European governments to make policy are insufficient, they prefer to be at the service of the financial sectors and neoliberal ideologists. That is why conventional parties are increasingly internalizing in their programs and speeches the messages launched by the far right. Just over five years ago, the leader of the Italian centre-left, Walter Veltroni, made statements to the Roma population of the Balkans as any leader of the French Fn can do. In recent weeks we have heard similar statements from the French Socialists in defence of the decisions of the Bulgarian and Romanian gypsies to put an end to the settlements. The Minister of the Interior, Manuel Valls, has directly linked the Roma with crime and said that the solution to the social problem that is growing around them is to expel them from France.

These discourses feed the extreme right, focusing on the social problem and forgetting the sociological problem. But of course, it's understandable, because stigmatizing minorities for being poor or for having a different culture is very easy and useful, especially if you want to cover your political disability or don't want to talk about all those white men and banks that get rich with public money.