Europe's right-wing extremists

Contemporary Review, Sept, 2004 by Peter Hylarides

Right-Wing Extremism in the Twenty-First Century. Peter H. Merkl and Leonard Weinberg, editors. Frank Cass. [pounds sterling]45.00. xv 311 pages. ISBN 0-7146-8188-1.

Right-wing extremism in Europe has been on the rise since the 1980s. In several European countries, parties of a new radical right have been relatively successful in national and local elections. To the outside world, their extreme positions may seem to resemble those of the fascist and national-socialist movements of the 1930s and '40s. In February this year, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Mr Rockwell Schnabel, even went as far as to speak of a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe to levels last seen in the Nazi era. The spokesman for the European Commission, Reijo Kemppinen, responded to this assertion that 'there are a lot of xenophobic phenomena in Europe', but 'whether they are on the increase or not is more difficult to say'.

This study sheds new light on the threat of the radical right in Western and parts of Eastern Europe. Peter Merkl, the Shepard Stone Professor at the Free University of Berlin, and Leonard Weinberg, the Foundation Professor of Political Science in the University of Nevada, have assembled a group of contributors who are all experts in the field of rightwing extremism and related issues. Together they try to answer various questions in relation to the rise of this phenomenon in a national as well as in a European context.

The book is divided into three parts and eleven chapters. The First Part focuses on recent extreme right-wing developments in Europe, offering theories to explain their popularity at the polls and emphasizing the growing political and cultural threat they pose to society. Also included in this part is a comparative analysis of the different right-wing organisations, their ideas and the influence they exert on established political parties in the liberal democracies of Western Europe. In the Second Part a comparison is made of the support of the extreme right in different European countries on the basis of major public opinion surveys, such as the Eurobarometer and the World Value Survey. An in-depth look at individual extremist parties in their changing national settings is provided in Part Three.

Four chapters in this last part are dedicated to the development of the Front National in France, Austria's FPO (Freedom Party), the National Democratic Party (NPD) in Germany and the somewhat different, more anti-Semitic radical right in Russia. Chapter Five concentrates on the governmental efforts to counter the threat of right-wing extremism in Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. Leonard Weinberg writes the conclusion by examining the issues raised in this study and placing them in a wider perspective.

It is difficult to derive general conclusions from, and fully comprehend, a subject that is so complex and wide in its variety. As Peter Merkl observes in his Introduction, the authors only have 'the space and resources to skim the surface of evolving phenomena in Europe rather than being able to go into great depths regarding any one movement or aiming at a comprehensive theory to explain a political reality that is still in transition and showing new faces every day'. There appears to be some consensus amongst the authors that the current revival of right-wing extremism has little to do with a return to Fascism and Nazism of the 1930s and '40s. Rather, it is the sense of cultural and economic dislocation as a result of ongoing globalisation that feeds the extreme right. Furthermore, it is the growing presence of a Muslim community in Western Europe that adds to the tension between the indigenous populations and the newcomers.

By providing the reader with a vivid and disturbing picture of the many right-wing parties in their different surroundings, the authors have made a significant contribution to the ongoing debate about the dangers of right-wing radicalism to a democratic society. The general reader should be aware that the authors presuppose a fair amount of knowledge on the subject, which makes the book less accessible for non-specialists. If this can be cast as a flaw, though, it is certainly not a serious one. As a readable account of a complicated subject, this study comes highly recommended.