The European Parliament elections in May could turn out to be very important for Marine Le Pen, the leader of the French National Front, and for her allies throughout the EU. If, as predicted, Far Right parties perform well, it will signal the growing disaffection the working classes feel toward the policies that have driven Europe into crisis and have kept unemployment high and wages stagnant.

For nearly two centuries, the resolution of any financial crisis has always involved a fight between workers and bankers, each of whom proposes to resolve the crisis in different ways. Bankers want stability above all, which to them includes maintaining the value of debts. Workers need growth, even if that comes at the expense of the monetary system and of creditors.

The euro crisis is one in a long line of battles between the two groups. Bankers insist that countries in the EU’s periphery like Spain must act “responsibly.” To them, that means that those states must remain within the eurozone and service their debt burdens, no matter how painful it is for the economy and for workers. If any country were to leave the eurozone and to restructure the debt they owe directly or indirectly to Germany, bankers warn, the economy would fall into chaos.