Throughout Europe, the dramatic success of the extreme right in the first round of France’s presidential elections has been met with a deafening outburst of shock and horror from politicians and the media alike. It has also prompted worried looks at the rise generally of the far right across the continent. The picture is most certainly disturbing particularly in Western Europe and most of all in those countries that have long been perceived as among the most tolerant and liberal in the world. There, the growing anti-immigrant voice is also an increasingly anti-Muslim one.
In Denmark, for example, the People’s Party, now the third largest following the elections last November, is not only anti-immigration and anti-European Union, it is distinctly anti-Muslim. Then there is the archliberal Netherlands. There the leader of the extreme right Leefbar Nederland (Liveable Netherlands), Pim Fortuyn, rails against Muslims. His star appears to be on the rise. Last month, he won over a third of the vote in the municipal elections in the country’s second city, Rotterdam, and next month, he is expected to win 20 seats in the parliamentary elections. And, of course, there is Italy, where the coalition government currently includes the xenophobic Northern League of Umberto Bossi and the National Alliance led by the former leader of the neo-fascists, and Austria, where the inclusion of the far-right Freedom Party of populist Jörg Haider in government two years ago prompted a seven-month boycott of the country by its EU partners. Add to the list Belgium with its far-right Flemish party, Vlaams Block, now the third largest in the country, and Germany, where the far right lurks ever expectantly in the wings, and the picture looks distinctly worrying. The idea of a Europe shifting to the right cannot be dismissed lightly.
Concern is, therefore, right and proper. It needs to be faced honestly. There may be those who agree with left-wingers and libertarians in the UK, for example, that the only response to the flood of apparent asylum seekers and refugees into the country should be to welcome them with open arms, but they are misguided. Those who attack the British government for seeing the issue as a problem are prisoners of a political correctness gone mad. To ignore the issue hands it over to the extreme right to manipulate. That is what has happened in France. In the case of Britain, the Labour government is addressing a matter that needs to be faced. Otherwise there too, the far right could benefit, especially while the Conservative opposition remains so feeble.
But, at the end of the day, is the much-voiced concern from Europe’s mainstream politicians and media about the rise of the far right genuine or is it being used for convenient scaremongering? There has to be a question mark against it. While the Europeans express shock and horror at Le Pen’s performance, they are so relatively muted when it comes to the far right in Israel. The condemnations are nowhere as forceful, and the actions nonexistent. Yet Sharon is as much a neo-fascist as Le Pen - and he is in power! The shock and horror about Le Pen would ring more effectively if there were the same intensive response toward Israel’s far-right leader.
