EU flags in front of the European Commission building in Brussels. Photo: Amio Cajander via Wikimedia Commons.

Jewish groups expressed concern on Monday over the surge in support for far-right parties in the European Union’s parliamentary elections, with fears that hate speech will now feature more prominently in European politics.

On Monday, the EU said that of the 751 seats, the center-right European People’s Party won 214, followed by the center-left Socialists and Democrats with 189, while the far-right parties surged to win a combined 36 seats, giving them enough weight to influence debate and decision making in the EU body.

France’s National Front won 25 seats, Hungary’s notorious Jobbik party won four seats, Greece’s Golden Dawn, under criminal investigation and with several party leaders in prison, entered the European Parliament for the first time, with an expected three seats, and the far-right FPÖ in Austria won four seats.

Daniel Schwammenthal, director of the American Jewish Committee Transatlantic Institute, said, “These radical parties have been able to grow in their respective home countries for quite some time and are now cementing their presence also at the European level.”

“They must be confronted head-on or the danger will only continue to grow,” Schwammenthal said, adding their “presence in the legislature for the next five years will, at a minimum, provide a soapbox from which to propagate their vile hatred.”

French artist and humanitarian Ron Agam, son of Israeli painter Yaacov Agam, told The Algemeiner on Monday, “The vote for the FN in France is a rupture with the past. Today French voters have endorsed a party that is essentially xenophobic, anti-Semitic and demagogically populist.”

“France’s democracy is in danger and the horizon for Jews is getting bleaker,” Agam said. “Jews in France are now sandwiched between a growing anti-Semitism from radical French Islamic elements and, now, an ever growing extreme right that will ultimately show its real face sooner or later.”

“More than ever, I am very worried for France’s Jewish community,” Agam said.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Monday also voiced concern over the “alarming” success of extremist, including neo-Nazi, parties in the elections.

“There is no doubt that political extremism is on the rise in Europe, and along with it anti-Semitism is rising as well,” said ADL National Director Abraham Foxman. “The success of extremist political parties, both on the far-right and far-left, has never been good for democracy or for Jews and other minorities. The continuing trend in Europe toward support for these parties is cause for heightened concern.”