A spirit of extremism is sweeping across Europe. As deteriorating economic conditions and German-led austerity programs take hold in almost every nation of the eurozone, parties on both the far-left and the far-right are rising. These worrying trends will only intensify as anger and resentment continue to build.

In France, over one third of voters cast a ballot for either far-left Trotskyites or far-right nationalists in the first round of voting last April. In Greece, the situation is even worse, with a full 70 percent of voters supporting either radical left-wing socialists or far-right xenophobes.

Far-left and far-right extremist parties are also taking root in Germany, Austria, Italy, Norway and the Netherlands.

Many news analysts are now warning of the polarization of European politics. Despite such warnings, however, the far-left and far-right political parties currently rising in Europe have far more in common with each other than they do with the centralist Social Democrats that have until recently dominated European politics.

The far-left political parties in continental Europe—like their sister parties in other parts of the world—espouse high levels of taxation, government entitlement programs and redistribution of wealth as the solution to the world’s economic woes. For the most part, these parties are anti-capitalist and anti-American.

A typical politician of the far-left is the firebrand Frenchman Jean-Luc Melenchon, who says his country should reach out to China and resist U.S. hegemony in an attempt to transform France into a neo-Communist state.

The far-right political parties in continental Europe, however, are much different than their so-called sister parties in the United States. In the contemporary Anglosphere, right-wing politics usually refers to the idea of minimalist government and economic libertarianism. Conversely, the so-called far-right parties on the rise across the eurozone espouse economic ideas that are even more “left wing” than most centralist European political organizations.

The National Front Party, led by Marine Le Pen, of France is usually referred to as a far-right political organization because of its staunch anti-immigration platform and its emphasis on French nationalism. Economically, however, the National Front favors many of the same big-government, anti-capitalistic ideas of its left-wing rivals.

This is why Marine Le Pen is so often referred to as a neo-Nazi. Nazism—or National Socialism—was the synthesis of right-wing nationalism and left-wing socialism.

In the words of Adolf Hitler’s air force commander, Hermann Göring: “Our movement seized the concept of socialism from the cowardly Marxist, and tore the concept of nationalism from the cowardly bourgeois parties, throwing both into the melting pot of our worldview, and producing a clear synthesis: German National Socialism.”

So really, both the far-left and the far-right parties now emerging on the European political scene are in favor of the same style of authoritarian socialism. The only real difference between these two political ideologies is in their respective view on the role of the nation-state.

The neo-fascist parties espouse a socialist model that applies to their nation only, while the radical leftist parties espouses a type of international socialism—wherein the working classes of the world unite in a struggle against Anglo-Saxon-style capitalism.

Bible prophecy reveals that extremist forces across Europe will soon unite behind a populist demagogue who will rule over a revived Holy Roman Empire. This tyrant could very well draw support from both the far-left and the far-right political parties that are currently on the rise.

Instead of establishing a type of socialism that is exclusive to one nationality (as Adolf Hitler did) or trying to establish a type of socialism that purposes to include all nations on an equal footing (as Vladimir Lenin tried to do), he will establish an authoritarian government that rules over a union of 10 nations in Europe. Like many of the far-right parties currently on the European scene, these nations will be bound together by the Roman Catholic faith, and like many of the far-left parties, they will also be bound together by their hatred for the Anglo-Saxon world.

For further proof of this, read Ron Fraser’s most recent column, “Merkel and Monti Revive Old Berlin-Rome Axis,” and Joel Hilliker’s most recent column, “Watch for Mr. Europe!”