Don’t blame voters for Europe's far-right surge. Blame the far-right’s mainstream copycats

It is far from unthinkable that in a few years, two founding states of liberal democracy — France and the US — will have presidents supported by far-right voters, writes Matthijs Rooduijn

In 2011, Marine Le Pen embarked on a strategy of de-demonisation (dédiabolisation) to detoxify her party’s extremist reputation. Photo: AP/Manu Fernandez

This week, citizens of all 27 EU member states will begin to vote in the European parliament elections. One outcome seems inevitable: the far-right will make significant gains.

Polls suggest that the two groups in the European parliament that harbour far-right parties could secure about 20% of the seats, a fourfold increase since the early 1990s. In four of the six founding EU states, these parties lead in the polls.