The recent election of Syriza in Greece (Report, 26 May) offers a vibrant glimmer of hope for the future of social and economic democracy in Europe. At the same time, however, the rise of rightwing nationalism, stoking racist and antisemitic sentiments, threatens the ideals of a plural and democratic Europe. Media accounts that misrepresent the importance of the growing electoral support for Syriza as the rise of leftwing "extremism" must be countered in the strongest of terms. There is no contemporary symmetry between the so-called "extremism" of left and right.
The efforts to dismiss the emphatic call for economic justice in both Greece and Spain (Podemos gathered 8%) as "populist", "anti-European" or "scepticism" misreads their political reach and importance. These radical left victories cannot be compared with the rise of the Front National in France, Ukip in England, the strengthening of antisemitic parties in both Greece and Hungary as well as anti-immigrant populism in Belgium and Denmark.
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