At a Saturday rally in Milan, Italy’s populist firebrand, Matteo Salvini, preened with France’s far-right icon, Marine Le Pen. Le Pen was accused of making a white supremacist hand gesture in a selfie with an ultranationalist politician from Estonia. The messaging is anything but subtle: The far-right populists of the European Union are banding together for a frontal assault on the political establishment in this week’s elections for the European Parliament. The flurry of campaign photo ops may also prove to be misleading: Egos and differing agendas could interfere once it comes time for the various populist parties to create legislative coalitions and act with discipline. Still, analysts predict a major electoral breakthrough that is certain to disrupt European politics.

Source: New York Times May 19, 2019 07:01 UTC