User blog comment:Toby2/economic collapse of the EU and fascisim/@comment-32656-20130530070148

These parties are more Neo-Nazi or Nationalist than anything. Not necessarily fascist.

People in Europe aren't happy with the EU right now, and euroskepticism is at a new high. And, it just so happens that with all these parties that is a major plank. That is, at this point in time, the primary reason for increased support. Now, there has been more support in recent years for other reasons, like anti-Muslim attitudes in some areas, but at this time that's not the main thing.

You can actually see similar attitudes on the far left side of things - in the last two Greek elections, for instance, the far-left and anti-EU Coalition of the Radical Left saw a large increase in support, coming in second and a few percentage points off winning, while the pro-EU socialist party suffered massive losses. The picture is similar elsewhere.

So, it's mostly just euroskepticism. That'll go away as things get better.

The EU will be fine, overall. Just like the rest of the world, its economy is recovering.