The right and faintheartedness

There are two definite conclusions from Sunday's European elections. Ruling New Democracy (ND) lost big and nationalist, pro-Russian Greek Solution won big. The percentages secured by all parties seem to imply a further shift of the ideological-political axis to the right. But before we hear any wisecracks about an "imported" far-right trend, perhaps we should look at the results in a different light.

It is more likely that we are seeing a shift of the electorate toward surrealism, and this is because the Greek far-right has no relation to the European far-right; the leader of Greek Solution, the biggest far-right party, Kyriakos Velopoulos, has advertised dubious products such as handwritten letters from Jesus in the past.

There were enough right-wing voters who were angry with the government and decided to teach it a lesson, while playing it safe. Of...