“The far right made big gains in European elections,” reads the Associated Press headline on last week’s European Parliament elections. Lest you wonder why you should dread gains by the “far right,” the lead sentence of the article notes that the European Union has “roots in the defeat of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.”
For many readers, that juxtaposition is a reminder of the sharp rise in Nazi party percentages in Weimar Republic elections to 43 percent in 1933, 33 and 37 percent in 1932, and 18 percent in 1930, from 3 percent in 1928.
