FAR-RIGHT parties achieved major gains in the European Parliament elections last week.

Results announced on Sunday showed a clear shift to the far right and in France prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to call a snap parliamentary election.

The far-right Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni more than doubled her party’s seats in the assembly. And despite being hounded by a scandal involving candidates, the neonazi Alternative for Germany (AfD) still rallied enough seats to sweep past the slumping Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.