Very interesting rumblings across Europe

Yesterday, we reported on Angela Merkel's rather abrupt turnabout on the issue of immigration.

An eye-opening development on a continent that has been on the expressway to oblivion.

Much to add to the list today:

Eight of Italy's major banks are teetering under the burden of bad-debt vulnerability, and if prime minister Renzi loses the referendum currently underway on restricting the Italian Senate's powers, the ripples could extend across the continent.

It looks like it's going to be Francois Fillon who will represent the French equivalent of three-pillared American conservatism in next year's presidential race, having won about twice as many votes as Alain Juppe in the primary. He'll be facing Marine LePen, the standard-bearer of the Western world's "populists'" hopes for France's future, as well as whoever the socialist left puts up.

What kind of guy is he?

It was in 1981, aged 27, that he was first elected as a member of parliament, becoming the National Assembly's youngest member.

His party was the Gaullist RPR of Jacques Chirac. Gaullism features a strong centralised state with conservative and nationalist policies.

Mr Fillon's parents, a history professor mother and lawyer father, were also Gaullists, and he was brought up in comfortable circumstances near the western city of Le Mans. 

He studied journalism and then law. In 1974 he met his future wife Penelope Clarke. She is Welsh and they have five children, the last born in 2001. They live near Le Mans, in the Sarthe department which remains Fillon's powerbase.

Mr Fillon's first ministerial post, higher education, came in 1993 under Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. He went on to hold five other cabinet posts, before serving as prime minister for five years until 2012 under Nicolas Sarkozy. 

He's a devout Catholic, he understands that marriage is the union of a man and woman, and he understands that the extermination of fetal French people is wrong. He also seems to understand that free-market economics is essential to human liberty. As his relationship with Nicholas Sarkozy developed as they worked together politically, he came to loathe Sarkozy. He has an odd inclination to foster closer relations with Russia. On the other hand, he feels very strongly that French culture and tradition must be preserved, and that the influx of Muslims does not serve that end.

Then there's the latest development in the Netherlands:

Geert Wilders, chairman of the Party for Freedom (PVV), has been celebrating on Twitter today. The reason? His party is now the biggest party in the Dutch polls. With elections coming up in March 2017, the populist politician seems to be on track to become the Netherlands' next prime minister.

According to the latest poll of Maurice de Hond, the Netherlands' most famous pollster, the PVV would become the biggest party in parliament if elections were held today (link in Dutch): they'd get 33 seats in the 150-seat lower chamber.

The PVV is the Netherlands' one and only populist party. It's more or less "conservative," although certainly not conservative on issues such as health care. Wilders is especially well-known for his criticism of Islam and Europe's open-borders policy, which he routinely -- and accurately -- describes as suicidal. His main goal is to end "the Islamization" of Europe generally and of the Netherlands specifically. 

Additionally, Wilders and his party are the most Eurosceptic of all the parties currently in parliament. He is the Netherlands' very own Nigel Farage, which he once again proved earlier this year when he and his allies won the Dutch referendum on the EU's upcoming treaty with Ukraine. Wilders campaigned hard against the deal, arguing that it would eventually lead to the poor (and not entirely democratic) Eastern European country joining the European Union. Although proponents of the treaty said that would not be the case, the Dutch voter wasn't convinced. Wilders and the "no" campaign won.

Europeans seem to have taken a square look at where they were headed and said, "What are our alternatives?"