MARSEILLE // From the shores of the Aegean Sea to Scandinavia, the European far right is on the march with a spring in its step unseen since the dark years of Hitler.
Analysts warn that the failure of Norbert Hofer, from Austria’s Freedom Party, to win his country’s presidential election last week should not be taken as an indication that the swing of the populist right has been halted.
Leaders of such populist movements routinely reject opponents’ attempts to portray them as Nazis, neo-Nazis or fascists. Some distance themselves from the “far right” label even when, as in France, voters themselves cheerfully admit to having opted for “l’extreme droite”.
But there are clear signs that parties broadly fitting the far-right description will continue to grow, reaping the benefits of public discontent with the failures of the left, right and centrist politicians who have traditionally held power.
“Mainstream politicians and parties should be worried that they have become too distant from the electorate,” said Anton Shekhovtsov, a visiting fellow at Vienna’s Institute for Human Sciences and an authority on Europe’s far-right movements.
"Voters see them as an internationalist, multiculturalist elite who overlook the problems that actually need to be tackled. And they turn to politicians who seem to talk to them," Mr Shekhovtsov told The National.
Terrorism, and the migrant crisis that has afflicted Europe for nearly two years, have played directly into the hands of the far right, which is typically suspicious of Muslims, opposing the supposed “Islamicisation” of European countries, and blames foreigners for all social problems.
In such an atmosphere, failures to combat crime, security and employment issues allows extremes – the far left but even more noticeably the far right – to exploit voters’ concerns.
The narrow defeat suffered by Mr Hofer, 45, in Austria’s elections was the latest example of a far-right figure rising above previously fatal association with extremism.
For him to obtain 49.7 per cent of the vote was extraordinary given his party’s history. Austria was the birthplace of Hitler and the Freedom Party was founded by former Nazis in the 1950s.
The party already holds 40 of the Austrian parliament’s 183 seats and, with its “Austria First” motto and regular denunciation of “forced multiculturalism, globalisation and mass immigration”, seems certain to make further inroads.
Mr Hofer rejects any association with the grim past of Austria and Germany and claims his party is centrist “to the left of the US Democrats”.
In Germany, Frauke Petry, 40, leader of the Alternative for Germany party, makes similar distancing noises. She seems wounded by attempts to portray her party as neo-Nazi and walked out of a conference when delegates from the country’s central council of Muslim organisations refused to withdraw a comparison.
"The best we can do to learn from our past is to preserve and create a democratic and liberal society," she told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper in March. "Pushing away your political opponents, calling them 'Nazi' and 'fascist', even suppressing different ideas of society, calling anyone who criticises this EU an 'enemy of Europe', this is losing our responsibility. This is giving up what we should have learnt from [the] Nazi regime."
But Mrs Petry wriggles when questioned about a notorious declaration that guns should be turned on refugees at Germany’s borders. She claims she meant only that weapons might be deployed, as a last resort under existing law. Her party won 25 per cent of the votes in recent regional elections and now constitutes a serious threat to Germany’s centre-right chancellor, Angela Merkel.
The French far right, the Front National (FN), is probably the best established of all Europe’s nationalist parties. Marine Le Pen has sought to present her party as equipped to govern, breaking with its classically fascist, anti-Semitic image to the extent of orchestrating the exclusion of its founder, her father Jean-Marie, last year.
In a country where the centre-right was driven from office in 2012 elections, to be replaced by the even more unpopular socialist administration of president Francois Hollande and his prime minister, Manuel Valls, the FN is successfully drawing on disgruntled former supporters of both conventional parties. In the current battle between the government and unions over changes to France’s employee-friendly labour laws – which has resulted in strikes threatening to paralyse the country – FN supporters are among the most vocal opponents to reform.
But Austria, France and Germany are not alone. The willingness of voters to forget murky past allegiances and origins has enabled Sweden’s Democrats party to gain a foothold in parliament despite a white supremacist background.
Greece’s neo-fascist Golden Dawn penetrated parliament for the first time amid gathering financial crisis in 2012, and has maintained electoral support despite numerous arrests of activists. And between the southern and northern extremes of the continent, there is evidence galore – from Hungary, Poland and the Netherlands among other countries – of the growing appeal of the far right.
In Britain, the impact has been blunted to some extent by the increasing popularity of the less extreme United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip). All the same, Ukip’s anti-immigration policies lead left-wing or centrist critics to place it firmly among Europe’s far-right movements.
Mr Shekhovtsov is clear on how Europe should face up to the challenge. “In the long term, [it] requires that the centre-left reimagine[s] its role in European politics,” he said in a co-authored article for the US-based think tank, the Atlantic Council.
“The appeal of far-right ideology can be seen as a reflection of the left’s failure to provide a comprehensive response to the challenges of the 21st century. Today, there is no clear leftist vision that can capture the hearts and minds of Europeans while putting forward financially and socially viable solutions. Rather, the left has developed its own extremist flank, which is hijacking moderate centrist parties in Spain, England, and Greece.”
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
