Fringe groups gain in European voting
“The European Parliament is predicated on the idea of a European 'demos', ” Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based research group, said, using a term meaning shared political culture. “But if this demos does not exist, the Parliament has a very hard time connecting with people.”
... Aside from its efforts to restrict snooping by American intelligence agencies in the wake of revelations by Edward J. Snowden, Mr Grant said, the European legislature “exists inside the Brussels bubble and doesn’t talk about things most people care about.” Its principal concern, he added, “has been to get more power for itself and more money for the European Union.”