The populist alliance
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On Wednesday, Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front, and Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Freedom party, met and unveiled their plans to create a euroskeptic alliance ahead of the European elections in 2014. Their stated aim, to slay the "monster" in Brussels and wreck the European parliament from within. The two leaders are often called far right populists and it's these parties, from Golden Dawn in Greece, to the Progress party in Norway and UKIP in the UK that seem to be gaining ground right across the continent. But can this alliance work? Paul Taggart is Professor of Politics at the University of Sussex in Britain and an expert on European contemporary politics and populism.