The European Parliament elections this month show growing support for far-right political parties, including in Germany, and the mass media have seized on that — predictably. However, the larger and far more important result is confirmation of the overall stability of European politics today.

The middle-of-the road parties remain strongest overall. The major point of European Union (EU) institutions is to restrain extremist movements, and potentially extremist nations, in a web of economic, political and legal agreements that provide increasingly powerful incentives to compromise and cooperate.

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Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of “After the Cold War” (NYU Press and Macmillan). Readers can write to him at acyr@carthage.edu.

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