ABSTRACT
European elections have long been associated with the rise of far-right parties but 2014 was nevertheless special. For more than a year European elites had warned of a Eurosceptic and far-right ‘earthquake’, which the media loyally declared on the night of the elections, not even awaiting the full results. Pointing to the remarkable results in a few specific countries, ‘the’ far right was declared the main winner of the 2014 European elections. This gave way to apocalyptic prophecies of an alleged dawn of a new Eurosceptic era.
