And then came the EU’s parliamentary elections of May 2014. The results rocked the European political establishment. Eurosceptic nationalist parties made dramatic gains. UKIP won in Britain. More significantly, the National Front (FN) won in France, taking 25 percent of the vote, as compared with the middle-of-the-road conservative UMP with 20 percent and the ruling Parti Socialiste with 14.7 percent. The FN drew on France’s deep strain of nationalism, anti-Semitism and postcolonial racism.
