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Press TV has conducted an interview with Webster Griffin Tarpley, author and historian from Washington, about the success of Euroskeptic parties in the European Parliament elections raising alarms among European leaders.

Press TV: Dr. Tarpley, how do you interpret the results of these elections in the context of the events that have taken place in the region in the weeks and months that preceded it?

Tarpley: I think we have to remember first of all that these are the first European elections since the beginning of the world economic depression in 2008-2009.

So it is the first crisis vote and in preparation for this vote the establishment media hopped incessantly that the anti-European, and these are generally racist, xenophobic, anti-foreigner and Islamophobic parties would have a wonderful sweeping, smashing success and that they would take over the European parliament.

Now obviously the reason this is done, is because the bankers would like to scapegoat foreigners and people of a different religion rather than having that popular rage directed against the bankers, the European Central Bank and the people who really created the crisis.

This strategy has only worked partially. What we have is a protest vote across Europe which is against austerity. It is the austerity policies that have been mandated by the European Central Bank and by Madame Merkel of Germany. Anybody who is associated with those gets hit rather hard and there is also a specific vote against the neo-liberal arrogance in dictatorial pretentions of the European Commission.

Now the two places where this anti-Europe or xenophobic vote did come true, was in Great Britain and in France. And here we have not fresh faces but two discredited shopworn hacks Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party in London and Marine Le Pen of the National Front of France in Paris.

These people have been around for a long time. Their stocking trade is anti-Algerian in France, Islamophobic and anti-Pakistan in Britain, some anti-West Indian too. So lot of that is Islamophobic also.

The thing that has allowed these two discredited hacks to come to the fore is that in each case the existing government is hated. The clear example is France. Francois Hollande came to power saying he would end austerity and instead he has increased austerity.

The other party, the Sarkozy party is still discredited from Sarkozy, so the National Front Marine Le Pen are the beneficiaries. Similarly in Great Britain the Cameron Tory Liberal government is discredited, its austerity policies are a failure. There is a special treachery for the Liberal Democrats, Labor is still discredited from Tony Blair and his lap-dog support for Bush’s Iraq war, so Nigel Farage comes out ahead.

But this is really not the big story. The big story is Greece. This would be the thing that will shake the world in the weeks and months to come and this is actually going to change the European political landscape.

In Greece we had the SYRIZA left bloc emerge as the biggest political party. They beat the pro-IMF new democracy of Prime Minister [Antonis] Samaras by four points approximately.

SYRIZA is now the biggest party. Their platform is very clear - “no” to austerity, “no” to the European Central Bank, “no” to the crushing debt burden, have an international debt conference and cut the debt burden that is crushing especially the southern European countries.

And the man of the hour in Athens is Alexis Tsipras who has made this possible. And He is now going to be the leader of a fairly strong group in the Brussels and Luxemburg parliaments. Now this is what the bankers actually fear and you can see this.