There really isn't a lot of news here. The National Front gets around 8-12% in elections depending on the type of elections. The Parliamentary system combined with the more common proportional representation voting (The UK is the only European country that operates first past the post and some suspect that it won't be much longer) throws up fringe elements all the time. Heck, the UK has UKIP and the BNP.

Sure it throws up pretty far-right loons but they aren't going to go away and I'd prefer to give them some outlet than end up with building resentment. The upside to proportional representation is you get such examples as 2 Pirate Party members in the European Parliament who I can't but fail to conclude had an effect on the recent blocking of the ACTA discussions. In Ireland, I can and do vote for tiny parties with my first preference and then move onto the larger, more policy broader parties. Currently, one of those parties, The Green Party, is propping up its larger partner and doing a solid job (Tax return of up to €1000 on bicycle gear a year my favourite).

Will European people vote in Holocaust deniers, reconstructed Communists, bigots, racists and homophobes into power? Sure but they tend to just get sidelined and ignored because the rest of the chamber just views them as nuts. The smaller parties that have something solid to contribute actually matter from time to time. Probably more than they should because they tend to be purer policy wise. Better market based politics I suppose.

As an aside, that power the European Parliament got was in the Lisbon Treaty. They would not have been able to halt its progress without Ireland passing it last October. Nice to get a little bit of vindication for your efforts:)

Somebody enlighten me: How socialist is Socialist Party? I haven't kept a track of French politics in years now so I have no idea how their political scene looks right now and how economy looks.

AND, appearance is not important.

The French Socialist Party is pretty much in line with many other West-European social-democratic parties. They're historically a tad more leftist, due to the French winner-takes-all electoral system. Whichever side was in charge realized their hot button issues. The gaullists (right wing) privatize the tv networks and highways. The socialists empower social security (even in the 80's, when it was not exactly en vogue) and legalized abortion, etc.