Airstrip One

High Watermark, not the end of the flood

The fall of the Dutch government is bound to make many of the established parties feel that another far-right dragon has been slain. Europe can not go back to sleep yet.

The next couple of years are likely to see an ebbing of the populist right throughout Europe as the gains of the past couple of years are whittled down. This will be complacently written up as a retreat. However this is mistaken. For as long as the left fail to represent the concerns of the working class in favour of a toned down sixties radicalism, and the right refuse to put forward anything approaching traditionalism on the "national question" there will still be a resevoir for the populist right.

We must hope that populists such as Fortuyn and Haider will continue to draw from it rather than borderline fascists such as Le Pen and Griffin - and we must hope that we can still spot the difference.