A noisy and eclectic band of nationalists and eurosceptics are hoping to unseat their mainstream rivals in European elections now underway.

Dutch anti-Islamists, Hungarian nationalists, Italian separatists and a Irish-backed anti-Lisbon Treaty party are all clamouring to get into the European parliament, and dismally low voter turnout looks set to play into their hands.

Ideal conditions
Jobs losses and a grim economic forecast have created the ideal conditions for these groups, says Urszula Gacek, a centre-right Polish MEP (Civic Platform), whose country is itself home to several arch-conservative parties and headed by a fiercely eurosceptic President, Lech Kaczynski.

“It’s all too easy to play on citizens’ fears and talk up the need for protectionism and the closing of borders right now. And these extremists will benefit from low numbers of voters, because they manage to mobilise their electorate,” she says.

Many within the European parliament view the possible arrivals from these extreme fringes of politics with trepidation bordering on fear, fretting that their new colleagues will attempt to reign in the powers of the very institution they are running for.  One Portuguese MEP lamented,

“It is bad enough having our sessions broken up by anti-eu ranters from the United Kingdom Independence Party, but what if these people actually get power now?"

Right-wing alliances
During their last pre-election session of parliament in Strasbourg last week, chatter about the looming changes to the balance of power dominated the corridors. Leaning conspiratorially over glasses of wine during late-night get-togethers in the parliament’s bars, politicians pondered about possible alliances within this disparate batch of newcomers, which could well include the British National Party (BNP).

The Green Party’s co-president Monica Frassoni says,

“It’s really very ironic that these groups have decided to go European, given that they are all basically campaigning against the EU.”

Ms Frassoni points out that these parties are so rooted in domestic politics that one group campaigning on an anti-Roma ticket is unlikely to get into bed with another pushing for an independent Flanders.  She says there are too many domestic agendas.

“We already had a right-wing faction here and they were so isolated that without a group they were not able  to do much in parliament.  We should not agitate stupid ghosts.  I think we should beat those far right and wrong policies.  Politically, we should convince people simply not to go and vote for them.”

A new party of far-right groups collapsed spectacularly just weeks after its creation last year, when Italians hurled verbal abuse at their “scum” Romanian colleagues, while Poles were left fuming about Austrian mutterings about the need to change the Polish-German border.  It is a far cry from the very cosy European spirit, with even British members having grown used to kissing their foreign colleagues on both cheeks! 

Insignificant
Andrew Duff, a British Liberal MEP, referring to recent changes to triple the number of politicians needed to form a political group to 28 says only a group wields power at the parliament.  They can chair committees and sway voting.

“Inevitably it all dissolved into shambles and now they will never make up the numbers they need to create a new political entity. Independent members count for nothing, which is why the risk posed by these extremists is in reality so insignificant.”

At the other end of the scale, the parliament risks being seen as a depositary for outlandish wannabes or failed has-beens this year. France’s disgraced former justice minister Rachida Dati (UMP) can at least boast political experience, unlike the string of female soap-opera stars and models being fielded by Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi for his centre-right party, to the outrage of his wife who last week filed for divorce, calling the move “shameless”. In Britain, former Apprentice star and Met Office worker Katie Hopkins has announced her candidature as the sole candidate standing for the Katie Olivia Hopkins Independent Party in Exeter. “It makes us look like a bunch of amateurs,” sighs one Dutch MEP.
 

Listen to Vanessa Mock's report: