In recent years, I have noticed a rise in the popularity of the far-right in France (where Le Pen made it into the Presidential run-off), Austria (Freedom Party enters government), Italy (where the facsist party is usually the fourth-most popular), the Netherlands (where Pim Fortuyn might have ended up Prime Minister had he not been assasinated), and other places. What is the cause of this rise in popularity?
‘Far-right’ is relative.
Le Penn, apart from his stance on immigration, was still fairly left, by American standards. He supported gov’t industrial controls, social welfare, etc.
Pim, a self-described (and former) Marxist, was concerned about muslim immigration, and other than that, was a dyed-in-wool liberal. His worry was that a large Islamic population would destroy the Netherlands’ traditionally liberal society. Being that he was gay, he voiced concern over Islamic intolerance to homosexuality.
What is being seen is not so much a rise in ‘right-wing’ politicians, as a rise in anti-immigration politicians. Many Europeans see their way of life threatened by mass immigration from poor non-European countries, and this naturally translates to the polls.
I think Europe just has a more diverse political spectrum, the right wing doesnt particularly have much power, certainly not compared to socialist parties.
I think the causes are somewhat different in the others countries you mentioned, but concerning Austria:
When we talk about a rise in the popularity of the freedom party, we talk about the situation prior to 1999, when the FP entered goverment. Since then, they lost every single election. In the general election in november 2002 the FP lost 2/3 of their seats, falling back from 27% to 10%. The conservative People’s Party - their coalition partner - was the big winner though, so they could continue the coalition. Since then, the situation has gotten worse for the FP every day. Joerg Haider, the great menace of the left and the establishement has become a ridiculous, egocentric old man.
IMO, the rise of the FP was mostly due to our political system.
Back then, we had a big coalition between the social-democrats (center left) and the the conservative people’s party who had an over 2/3 majority in parliament. You couldn’t vote them out.
We’ve had a social-democratic chancellor for almost 30 years until 1999, although there would have been a right-wing majority in parliament since 1985!
I tend to be left-wing, but I do understand that this can cause some frustration.
You had to be a party-member or at least have some good friends within either the Reds (social-democrats) or the Blacks (people’s party) to make a career in major parts of our society.
Plus, these parties virtually divided up our country between them. We have “Black” dormitories for students, we have “Red” ones and - by now - we have Freedom-Party controlled ones as well.
We have two kinds of police, the “Bundespolizei” in the cities which is “Red” and the “Gendarmerie” on the countryside which is “Black”. Our major banks were equally divided. Bank A - “Red” bank-director, Bank B - “Black” bank-director.
It’s a bit better now - EU-membership helped modernize old structures, but party influence is still far to great.
Of course, we also had our scandals, corruption and all that. And you couldn’t do much about it. You couldn’t vote the goverment out.
So people got frustrated and voted for Haider. He presented himself as the underdog fighting the establishment, speaking out what the “little man on the street” thought. Austria’s Robbin Hood.
Being in goverment destroyed the party. They had no concept, no competent personal. Their popularity vanished and Haider couldn’t deal with it. So he went amok. He backstabbed the ministers of his own party and visited Saddam Hussein. :smack:
The “rise” of our right wing populist is over.
Kalimero
Some European countries have experienced a rise in popularity of far-right parties, others haven’t. Here in Scandinavia, for instance, Denmark and Norway have vibrant far-right parties (The Norwegian one is the largest party in some polls) while Sweden and Finland don’t have ones to much speak of. Finland had something of a scare in elections a month ago, though, as anti-immigration, right-wing populist loudmouth Tony Halme attracted a large number of votes in Helsinki and got elected to Eduskunta, under the banner of traditionally agrarian True Finns which has lately been taking steps in becoming a more European far-right party. Time shall show what’ll become out of that.
I’d tend to estimate that we haven’t seen the last of the far-right wave. The boomer retirement will necessitate getting more immigrants, and that inevitably leads to backlash. I’d say that France in particular is a ripe area for a groundswell, considering that a national bugaboo and a holocaust denier like Le Pen could get 20% of the vote. Le Pen’s 75, bound to retire soon, and should there be a younger, more charming type in the wings waiting for his chance, France’s going to see some interesting times.
Brutus: Immigration wasn’t Le Pen’s only right-wing issue. He supported banning abortion, reinstituting death penalty, ending same-sex marriages, withdrawing France from EU, slashing government and taxation, and so on. While those are more normal positions in America, they still pretty much put him in the rightist camp.
Pim Fortuyn was a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, in European sense - supporting less government in both social and economic areas. He’s an interesting case, and I’d tend to agree that he shouldn’t be hit with the same far-right brand as these other politicians.
Norway’s Hagen, Denmark’s Kjaersgaard, Vlaams Blok in Belgium, Alleanza Nationale in Italy - to my knowledge they all are pretty right-wing (for Europe, at least) in areas other than immigration, too. Beyond Fortuyn and possibly Chenevement in France, the parties in Europe’s anti-immigration wave have mainly been traditionally right-wing.
Oh, and Le Pen’s platform included ending the income tax and the inheritance tax. Hardly left-wing positions.
Pia Kjaersgaard (Dansk Folkeparti) has mainly gathered votes on being outspokenly nationalistic, isolationist, anti-EU and anti-immigration. Her party is certainly backing the welfare state 100% - actually, a lot of their BS is based on the idea that if only foreign aid, immigration and the EU was abolished, there’d be “enough money” to spend on better hospitals, bigger public old-age pensions (lots of senior citizens among their voters). Their numbers are completely unrealistic, of course. But a lot of their voters appear to be in it simply for the protest.
OK. I seemed to remember otherwise.
The far right is WAY more powerful in America than Europe. While some of the fringe candidates you mentioned made waves, none were elected to higher office. Has Le Pen done anything in years? Haider is out of politics now and was on the wane anyway. Look stateside.
All of mainstream Europe is concerned at the rise in immigration, actually, that’s not right; all of mainstream Europe is concerned at illegal immigration and the mass exodus from the Balkans, Eastern Europe and North Africa of people under the baseless pretext of ‘political asylum’ - they’re usually obvious economic migrants.
The Right are the most vocal in addressing the mainstream’s fears in relation to being “swamped”, etc. and may themselves have a wider manifesto – but that doesn’t mean people vote for them because of their manifesto. Rather, the public who do vote for the Right are predominately voting for them on the single issue of immigration, IMHO.
It’s another phase in the (post-Cold War) evolution of Europe and it’ll pass.
Sounds like enough time has passed since WW2 for the current generation to have no memory of hardcore fascism.
Well, it looks like us Canadians, along the Americans, are gonna have to go over there and save Europe from itself again…
There is no such rise in popularity. It is not enough to look at LePen’s making it into the Presidential run-off, you have to look at both his and his party’s percentage. He made it into the run-off because the left was splintered between numerous candidates who together had almost as much as LePen and Chirac taken together. LePen himself stated that anything under 20% in the runoff would be considered a defeat by him. As such, by his own standards, he was soundly defeated. More, looking at the following parliamentary election, no one is really interested in his party.
As for Austria, the Freedom party was scuttled soundly in the recent elections. The only reason they are still in the government is that the conservative party couldn’t come to terms with anyone else, and the Freedom Party is always good for concessions as long as they can stay in power.
As for the Netherlands, it is misleading to call Pim Fortuyn a right-wing extremist. That would oversimplify a lot of his positions. For one thing, he was openly gay -name the right wing extremists who can claim, let alone tolerate that. Second, while he was against MORE immigration, he was perfectly fine with those who are already there, as long as they work to integrate themselves. Sorry to say, but compared to US Republican party line, Fortuyn is actually more to the left in many positions.
The vast majority of voters for these parties in no way share their ideology, but rather want to teach ‘those up there’ a lesson. Quite consistently, they are scared by what they did once the results are in, and in the next elections, everything returns to normal. More, where Rightists actually get to enter the government, as in Austria, they make a habit out of disqualifying themselves through sheer incompetence. To rule, it is not enough to go around telling people how things should NOT be done. You also need a practical plan as to how things SHOULD be done. Consequentially, the Freedom party in Austria was the one definitive loser of the last elections.
A)LePen, by his very own standards, was soundly defeated. The results of his party were even worse. If there was a viable successor, he would be working on one or the other panel right now, no? The Front National has been posing a bunch of mayors, and several of them were defeated. Sorry, but there is no wave. There have been wavelets all over the last 20 years, in France and elsewhere, which all have subsided. None of them had any significant consequences whatsoever. Where are the German Republicans? Scuttled themselves with infighting. The Austrian Freedom Party? On the way down, down to Goblin Town. The only reason they are still in power, weakened a lot, is that both they and the conservative party are willing to make any compromise, as long as it helps them to stay in power. Their influence on government policy did not include any right wing extremist agenda, but rather consistent demonstration of incompetence.
I’d like to know how the OP defines “far right.”
Is there any significant religion-based movement to restore “traditional family values” anywhere in Europe? Nope.
Does LePen support massive cuts in social spending in France? Did Pim Fortuyn want to eliminate the generous welfare programs of the Netherlands? Are there any mass movements in Europe demanding a return to laissez faire economics? Nope, nope and nope.
So, I’m afraid I don’t see much worth calling a “far right” in most of Europe.
astorian:
Traditional family values are heavily promoted by the right-wing populists, though not so much in a religous context. Anti-social-welfare policies are common, too.
But, since the most important group for these parties are the underprivileged, the lower middle class, they can’t make hardcore “laissez faire economics”.
Haider for example once wanted a flat-tax system in Austria (With a maximum tax rate of about 30%). He used to flame about “welfare parasites” or public funding of modern art. But in the same time, he demanded public support for families who should receive about 400€ per month for each child until they were 6 years old, IIRC. He never questioned social healthcare, too.
Typical characteristics of the far right in Europe are nationalism, racism, anti-semitism, excessive law and order policies (supporting the death penalty, as Le Pen does, IS considered a far right position in Europe).
Economic liberalism and religous fundamentalism are rather untypical.
The Norwegian party isn’t far right just populistic, they would probarbly support increased immigration if they could gain voters. If they were in the US they would look left wing. And if you believe the polls(I don’t) a left wing party is the biggest now.
:rolleyes:
Le Pen’s success, some theorized at the time, also had much to do with voters’ boredom with Lionel Jospin, who didn’t inspire confidence or interest and was seen as out-of-touch.
Thats interesting. I don’t think there really any relavant anti-semitic politicians here in the US. The death penalty has mainstream support.
So where do the stereotypicial members of the right in Europe stand on welfare issues like socialized healthcare or state subsidized education? Do they want to abolish it totally, privatize it, or do they go along with it?
Do you know why Le Pen wanted to prevent the building of Mosques in France (i read that was one of his policies). i’m guessing it was done mainly to limit immigration but was it also a form of cultural intolerance?
First of all, I’ll admit this: I was thinking of the rise in the far-right over the 1990’s, not just in recent months. It’s my fault that I didn’t make it clear.
Second: Some people want my definition of the “Far-Right” in Europe. I’m thinking of people along the lines of France’s National Front, Britain’s BNP, the Netherlands’ List Pim Fortuyn (while Fortuyn might not have been a member of the far-right, his party certainly is), and the Italian facsist party.
(BTW, from what I recall reading, Mr. Fortuyn, had he been elected, had planned to abandon his own party.)
Third, with the question above about laissez-faire economics: the only candidate for the French Presidency last year opposed to the current system was Alain Madelin, who ran as a classical liberal, and (as I recall) only received 6% of the vote.
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The problem is that there is no such wave.
Quite the contrary, the mainstream, as a recent study just showed, has become WAY more liberal in terms of such things as interpersonal relationships (wedding vs. out of wedlock relationships and children, homosexual relationships) and others (drug use etc).
There have been regular attempts by the right to stem this tide of liberalization, but they have been unsuccessful not the least because the vast part of those who vote for them do not vote FOR their policies, but AGAINST those of the current government and larger opposition. As such, the waves of right wing successes mostly happen when people are frustrated with the political establishment. That can be easily shown by the fact that right wing successes coincide with drops in electoral turnout.