Symposium

0 Comments | Insight on the News, June 3, 2002 | by Ivo H. Daalder, | Paul Gottfried

Q: Should Americans be concerned about the rise of far-right parties in Europe?

YES: The anti-immigrant parties are racist, xenophobic and intolerant and could undermine the European Union.

There have been two disturbing developments in Europe in the last couple of months that conjure up images not seen there since the 1930s. First, across the continent there has been an upsurge of anti-Jewish violence--the burning of synagogues, the firebombing of kosher delis, the desecration of grave sites, attacks on Hasidic Jews, swastikas painted on Jewish schools and even anti-Semitic cartoons in mainstream European newspapers. In Berlin, this trend has led police to advise its Jewish population not to adorn themselves with Jewish symbols, such as wearing a Star of David or donning a yarmulke.

Second, the triumph in France of Jean-Made Le Pen in the first round of presidential voting is only the latest in a series of electoral successes for far-right--and at times fascistic--political movements in Europe. The trend started in Switzerland in 1999, where new leadership in the Swiss People's Party led to a campaign based on anti-immigrant, anti-European Union sentiment. The party nearly doubled its share of the national vote to 23 percent. A year later in Austria, there was a surge of support for Jorg Haider--who earlier in his career had praised Nazi employment policies and spoken of Nazi "punishment camps." Haider secured 27 percent of the vote and a place in the government for his party.

Then last year, from Norway in the north to Italy in the south, far-right extremist groups scored one electoral victory after another. In Norway, Carl Hagen led his Progress Party to a second-place finish, leading to seats in the Cabinet. Umberto Bossi's Northern League and Gianfranco Fini's neo-Fascist Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance) entered the Berlusconi government in Rome. Pia Kjaersgaard's Danish People's Party became the third largest in Denmark, and though it does not form part of the governing coalition, the government needs its support on key issues. In Germany, law-and-order candidate Roland Schill, nicknamed "Judge Merciless," captured almost 20 percent of the vote in local elections in Hamburg. And in Belgium, the Vlaams Blok--led by Filip DeWinter, who called Le Pen his "brother in arms"--won well more than one-third of the vote in the harbor town of Antwerp.

The trend continued this year with the former Marxist and openly gay Pim Fortuyn winning an astonishing 34 percent of the vote in Rotterdam, the Netherlands' second-largest city. (Fortuyn was assassinated on May 6, nine days before national elections. Opinion polls taken before his assassination had predicted Fortuyn would have led the third-largest party in Parliament.) And, of course, there was Le Pen's shocking second-place finish in the first presidential vote. While soundly defeated in the runoff, Le Pen still secured backing from 18 percent of the French electorate, gaining more votes than the first time around.

These developments have left the European political and intellectual elite, as well as much of the public, in profound shock. Le Pen and his European ilk represent the ugly side of Europe--a side many thought or hoped had passed with the defeat of the Nazis and fascists two generations ago. Their anti-immigrant message is deeply racist, xenophobic and fundamentally intolerant of diversity. They openly advocate sending foreigners--especially those of color--back to where they came from. Much of the ire is directed against Muslims, though many also have engaged in anti-Semitic rhetoric.

Le Pen most astonishingly has called the Nazi gas chambers a "detail of history." Other candidates add their own anti-immigrant rhetoric. Hamburg's Schill complained: "Unhindered immigration into Germany, especially of black Africans, people from the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and other Muslim countries has led to imported unemployment and imported crime." Norway's Hagen has claimed, "If you have too many immigrants, you have social conflict." And the Danish People's Party plastered posters around the country that pictured a young, blonde girl. It was captioned: "When she retires, Denmark will have a Muslim majority."

The far right not only is racist, but also is profoundly anti-Europe. It sees the European Union (EU) as nothing more than a bureaucratic behemoth that is able to control national destiny with few, if any, checks and balances. While this sentiment neither is a new nor a far-right phenomenon, it increasingly has become part of the rhetoric used by far-right parties in their political campaigns.

What explains this rightist upsurge and increase in violence?

The recent violence witnessed in European cities is closely tied to the escalating situation in the Middle East. However, the anti-Jewish violence that has been witnessed around Europe, and especially in France, has not come from the far right. Unlike the anti-Semitic violence of the 1930s, Muslim immigrant populations are primarily responsible for recent occurrences.