Centrist politics in Europe sway dangerously to the right

Editorial writer Mary Dejevsky analyses the elections in Belgium, Austria and Sweden and notes that the "rejection of the centrist status quo found its expression in a sharp turn to the right. ... Here we have three elections with superficially different outcomes, which nonetheless have a common element: the parties of the far right were proportionately the greatest beneficiaries. And - lest there be any confusion - their electoral appeal resided in one thing: hostility to immigration. ... .The consolation is that the far right remain on the fringe and Europe's democratic systems are so far able to cope with them. The combined message, however, is disturbing. It is that the issues clustered around immigration, Islam and cultural difference are issues on which people are voting, even if they hide their intentions from the pollsters."

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