European far-right parties to merge

The heads of far-right political parties in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, and France are coming together to form a ‘pan-European “patriotic” party’. The leaders of the new party, according to the BBC, ’said their aim was to defend Europe against “Islamisation” and immigrants’. Also, the approved euphemism for this appears to be ‘patriotic’.

I have two—admittedly snarky and probably unproductive—thoughts: One, this might give Silvio Berlusconi some pause from his recent plotting to retake the government in Italy after Romano Prodi’s resignation. If this pan-European far-right party eventually reaches into the Italian right wing, it might draw away some support from that base. And two, is it possible that the Belgian far-right thinks this will help the country with its ethnic problems? They still can’t form a government: could the answer possibly lie in a reaffirmation of the supremacy of white Christians? They can all still agree on that, right?