LONDON -- The failure of Europe's mainstream parties to tackle important issues that matter to their electorates has fostered the rise of far-right politicians, AFP quoted the European Union External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten as saying on Wednesday.

"Many people have a loss of identity. That, combined in some countries with social alienation. I don't think that politicians have addressed these issues," Patten told BBC Radio.

"I think many politicians have believed that we live in a post-ideological age, that we don't have to have politics with ideas or principles any more, that it is about managing consumer expectations."

"I think that is profoundly wrong. If you leave a vacuum, people with simple solutions to complex problems fill it in any country," he added.

Patten was speaking in the wake of the second place won by far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in the French presidential election, and the murder of populist Dutch anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn.

While the programs of the two men's parties were very different, they shared an ability to tap into the deep concerns of many European voters, Patten said.

The extreme right British National Party also won an unprecedented three seats in last Thursday's local government elections in England.

"One thing which is common to Mr. Fortuyn, whose death is an appalling blow to Dutch democracy, and to Le Pen and (Austrian politician) Joerg Haider and many other extremists ... is that, even if you dislike intensely what they are saying, they speak with considerable clarity and simplicity."

Extremism can only be beaten if politicians from moderate parties cut their reliance on focus groups and adopt a more straight-talking approach, suggested Patten.

"All politicians should speak far more openly about the importance of ensuring in our societies that there are common values and people are encouraged to develop a common sense of identity," he added.

A bus sits in ruins after a blast in Karachi on May 8, 2002. A suicide bomber in a car packed with explosives killed 11 outside the volatile southern city's Sheraton Hotel. The bus was packed with French workers about to leave for a dockyard when the bomber struck.