A NEW EUROPE? – AT 8:43 A.M. ET:  As usual, the political pundits, who routinely are years behind the time, are shocked, shocked, by the showing of right-wing parties in Europe in the last week's elections for the European parliament.  I stress "right wing."  These are not conservatives.   In Europe the term "right wing" has a special connotation.  Some of the parties that made great gains are neo-fascist, and some use Nazi symbolism. 

What is also striking is that some of the leading "right wing" personalities of Europe have developed an affection for Vladimir Putin and his false "family values" narratives.  (So, by the way, has Pat Buchanan, proving his true views once again.)

This is an electoral jolt, and, while we can be amused at the shock to the leftist European establishment, we must be on guard.  We're not talking about the Reagan Revolution here. 

The solidly conservative Bret Stephens, in The Wall Street Journal, comments, and he is in a grim mood:

On the view that there's a silver lining to most things, consider the European election results. Yes, fascism is back, officially, ugly as ever. But at least Americans might be spared lectures from the bien-pensant about the crudeness of U.S. politics vis-à-vis Europe's.

Now, whenever I hear about the National Front, I'll reach for my Second Amendment...

...One in four French voters cast their ballots for the National Front, edging out the center-right UMP and trouncing the governing Socialists. On election night Sunday, Mr. Le Pen's daughter and current party leader, Marine Le Pen, declared: "Our people demand just one politics. The politics of the French, for the French." What's French for Ein Volk ?

Ms. Le Pen is supposed to be softer and smoother face of her father's party, but the evidence of that is hard to see. Last month she paid a visit to Moscow, lambasted the European Union for declaring a "Cold War" on Russia and embraced separatism in Ukraine. As for Vladimir Putin, she praised him in a recent interview as a "patriot" who "upholds the sovereignty of his people" and defends "the values of European civilization."

And...

Values, presumably, such as invading and intimidating neighbors, stuffing ballot boxes, jailing dissidents and attempting to restore the reputation of the Soviet Union.

The Kremlin has also made overtures to Hungary's Jobbik party, which took nearly 15% of the vote in last week's election, as well as to Greece's Golden Dawn, which got 9.4%. These parties aren't neo-fascist, in the early Benito Mussolini mold. They're neo-Nazi, in the late Ernst Röhm mold. Golden Dawn marches under a swastika-like banner.

Finally...

A decade ago it was conventional wisdom to observe that Europe had become a zone of perpetual peace, an agent of soft power and international law, Venus to America's Mars. But history is coming back to Europe, and not just at the far margin in places like Donetsk. The European Parliament may be mostly toothless as a political institution. But now there's no blinking at the fact that fascism is no longer just a piece of Europe's past but also a realistic possibility for its future.

There will be a temptation to bury the implications of this vote for another five years. But if youth unemployment remains at 25% in France and 57% in Spain, these elections will only be the beginning of another ugly chapter in European civilization. Mr. Putin can sense that the ghosts hovering over the continent work in his favor.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  I would also wonder out loud whether this mess would have been created if American leadership were still strong.  That's speculative history, but I marvel at the number of things going wrong with Obama in the White House.

The president will make a "major" foreign-policy speech at West Point on Wednesday.  There's something not quite harmonious about Barack Obama and West Point, but that's another discussion. 

May 27,  2014