'Shake the System!' Far-right On Rise ahead of 2014 EU Vote

Next year Europeans get the chance to replace their EU MPs, the worry is, though, increasing numbers of voters are being attracted to the far-right. At the root is anger at what's perceived to be unbridled immigration, while suffering from stagnant economies and stubborn unemployment. Tesa Arcilla looks at some of those on the right, who are lining up to take on Brussels.

France's FN to Team Up with Other Far Right Parties for European Elections

Marine Le Pen, leader of 'Front National', France

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Marine Le Pen announces plan to create pan-European far-Right front, teaming up with Dutch, Swedish, Belgian and Austrian anti-immigration parties

Populist and anti-immigrant far-right parties will fight together on a common manifesto in next year's European Union elections but will not form an alliance with neo-fascist parties, Marine Le Pen has said.

The French Front National (FN) leader is planning to team up with Dutch, Swedish, Belgian and Austrian anti-immigration parties but has asked her father Jean-Marie Le Pen to break with groups such as the British National Party (BNP).

During a Strasbourg press conference to launch her softer focus "European Alliance for Freedom", Miss Le Pen, who is already an MEP, poured scorn on Nigel Farage for being immature, scared of joining forces with her and worried that she would overshadow him and Ukip as Europe's most important populist leader.

"We do have contact with them. Ukip is a young movement without the maturity of established nationalist parties. Ukip is already so much a victim of demonisation that it is afraid to undergo the demonisation other parties have faced. It is afraid of its image," she said.

"I would like them to join the alliance but if they don't want to that is too bad. I think Nigel Farage is worried because I would be the leader." » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Wednesday, October 23, 2013