Far right gains in E.U.

last updated 8 January 2015

Strasbourg, France

Thanks to new E.U. members Romania and Bulgaria, extreme-right parties now have enough seats in the European Parliament to form their own bloc. The group—which calls itself Identity, Tradition, and Sovereignty—has 20 members from six countries, and includes Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Bruno Gollnisch of France’s National Front, who is currently awaiting trial for Holocaust denial, is the bloc’s leader. Much of the rest of the 785-member parliament, based in Strasbourg, is appalled. The two biggest parties, the center-left Socialists and center-right European People’s Party, said they planned to shut the right-wingers out of all important committee posts.