Unconventional players emerging in Europe’s politics

The most obvious manifestation of the new political tide is the rise of the Pirate Party movement in Sweden in early 2006, and later in Germany.

The name has its roots in the arguments over intellectual property on the Internet. At the party meetings, the members do not talk to each other. Rather, they communicate within the framework of what they call the "Liquid Democracy," discussing their suggestions online.

During the recent conference of the party in Germany, the members dressed as pirates, with three-cornered hats, and some of them played in a children's pool filled with plastic balls.

The party does not subscribe to the usual range of policies and they have no plans on critical issues such as the detail of tax rates or eurozone crisis.

The German Pirate Party managed to garner eight percent of the votes in regional elections for the state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein, in the far north of Germany. In Berlin, the party has 15 members in the state parliament.

"We offer what people want. People are really angry at all the other parties because they don't do what politicians should do,” said Matthias Schrade, a leader of Germany’s Pirate Party.

Polls show that Germany’s two major political parties -- the Christian Democrats of Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Social Democrats -- fall short of absolute majority and they both need an alliance in the country’s next parliamentary elections.

Traditionally, the two parties forged alliances with the Greens. However, now that the greens are neck-and-neck with the Pirates, the new unconventional players are expected to become Germany’s third political force.

This kind of angriness is also seen in Anders Breivik’s twin attacks which killed 77 people Norway in July 2011.

Breivik faces terrorism and premeditated murder charges for detonating a car bomb that killed eight people outside the government headquarters in Oslo and then killing 69 people in a shooting rampage at the Labor Party's annual youth camp on the island of Utoya in the south.

Although he has boasted that the killings were necessary and a part of, what he has described as, a crusade against ‘Islamization’ of Europe, he did not kill Muslim immigrants since he wanted a drastic change in the country’s policies.

In France, Marine Le Pen, who was a candidate in the 2012 presidential election, is another example that shows the traditional right and left political forces are losing ground giving way to new players.

On 22 April 2012, she polled 17.90 percent of the votes in the first round and finished in third position behind Francois Hollande and incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy.

During a speech delivered in Paris on 1 May 2012 after the traditional Joan of Arc and Labor Day march, she refused to back either Sarkozy or socialist Hollande in the run-off on 6 May. Addressing the party's annual rally, she vowed to cast a blank and said that "Hollande and Sarkozy -- neither of them will save you. On Sunday I will cast a blank protest vote.”

Moreover, the 2011-2012 Spanish protests, also referred to as the 15-M Movement and the Indignants Movement, demand a radical change in Spanish politics as protesters do not consider themselves to be represented by any traditional party nor favored by the measures approved by politicians.

Greek right-wing extremist organization Golden Dawn, widely reported Greek political party with nationwide support, is another epitome of the urge for change among European people. Many scholars and media describe the organization as neo-Nazi and fascist.

Golden Dawn’s founder Nikos Michaloliakos appeared to give a Nazi salute in the Athens city council, but he claims that it was merely "the salute of the national youth organization of Ioannis Metaxas"

Many believe that their logo is also like the swastika but the group claims it is a traditional Greek meander, not a Nazi symbol.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, which began when a group of demonstrators gathered in New York's financial district on September 17, 2011 to protest against corruption, the unjust distribution of wealth in the country, and the excessive influence of big corporations on US policies, is another representation of a protest movement against social and economic inequality.

The Anonymous group, a hacktivist group that originated in 2003, represents the concept of many online and offline community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic, digitized global brain, which is a new way of protest created in the recent years.

Observers say the potential evolution of political alliances in the Europe of today, which is yet to resolve its economic crisis, seems to be a difficult and fragile process.

All these newly-emerged political figures and movements have one thing in common: they do not trust the main movements and want a new form of politics.