In three countries the European elections were won by right wing, anti-European, nationalist parties: in France, the National Front; in Britain, the United Kingdom Independence Party; and in Denmark, the People's Party. These parties focus on fears of immigration and the loss of national identity and power, to undemocratic European institutions. They feed off widespread discontent with the "political class" and their media-manufactured image machine. They draw their main electoral support from the voting base of traditional conservative parties, whose nationalist credentials are undermined by the international nature of modern capitalism. However, they also appeal to sectors of the indigenous working class who are disgusted with traditional politics, and as a consequence of falling living standards, are open to poisonous anti-immigration messages. The only really positive election result in Europe was the victory for the socialist coalition SYRIZA in Greece. They stood on an anti-austerity program.

The immediate cause of this right-wing shift is the European economic collapse in 2008-9, which led to a big fall in living standards, incomes, employment and public spending. A sense of economic security disappeared even in those European countries that did not suffer a deep crisis. But in southern Europe and Ireland the crisis hit particularly hard. The policies adopted by conservative, liberal and social-democratic parties were the same all over the continent -- to impose austerity against the workers and the poor. When elections brought new governments to power, like the 2012 election of President Francois Hollande, his Socialist Party pursued the same policies as his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy -- driving down the living standards of the working class through austerity.

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the European Union presented itself as a "social market economy" where social rights, welfare, healthcare, pensions and education were a governmental responsibility. The free-market was supposed to be tamed under this popular consensus. But no sooner had the "communist threat" disappeared; the entire social consensus and workers' rights came under attack.

All over Eastern Europe an economic collapse accompanied the transition to a capitalist system. Living standards fell and welfare systems deteriorated in most of these countries. As they were integrated into the European Union, tens of millions of skilled and low paid workers became available for exploitation by European companies. Investment into Eastern Europe could exploit them at home, and as migrant laborers moved to Western Europe, they were paid less and made to work harder than natives. The resentment among west European workers was inevitable when their own living standards came under attack.

In addition, the collapse of the Soviet Union discredited the socialist alternative, within social-democratic and labor parties. They moved increasingly to the right: a process epitomised by Tony Blair's attempt to rebrand the British Labor Party as "New Labor" like a corporate marketing campaign. The content would be conservative, the label progressive. The social-democratic parties adopted policies based on the interests of finance and big business, which invariably meant undermining workers' rights. In the early noughties German wages and conditions came under assault: one widely adopted government scheme promoted monthly wages of only 400 Euros. The costs of German unification were the excuse given for why large parts of the population were forced to live in hardship.

In much of Western Europe the underlying processes remained hidden during the economic boom that lasted until 2008. Indeed, sections of the working class appeared to gain out of the long cheap-credit-fuelled property boom. People felt better off and were able to borrow against fictitious property value and spend the money, as if they were really better off. When this sense of prosperity disappeared immigrants were turned into scapegoats.

Unemployment and economic stagnation are often explained by over-capacity and a lack of demand. This describes the appearance of crisis but not its cause. It is investment that determines the rate of growth. Under capitalism investment is driven by the rate of return on capital, i.e. by profits. The profit rate in most capitalist countries is below that in 2007 so investment remains sluggish and growth remains low.

The tensions within Europe will increase as mainstream capitalist parties seek to regain the electoral support that they lost this week. To do this they will spice up their nationalist and anti-immigration messages, injecting more poison into European politics.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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