EXTREME right-wing parties across Europe stunned mainstream politicians by winning dozens of seats in the EU Parliament. Elections in Holland, Austria, Denmark, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania as well as Britain resulted in wins for the far-right.
In The Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ anti-Islamic Freedom Party won 17% of the votes, becoming the country’s second-largest party in the European Parliament. Austria’s Freedom Party, which also campaigned on anti-Islam policies, more than doubled its vote share to 13.1%. Hungary’s Jobbik party, led by Krisztina Morvai, is Euro-sceptic, against immigration and wants police to crack down on “gipsy crime”. It won almost 15% of the vote.
The Greater Romania Party which is pro-religion, anti-gay and anti-Hungarian, got almost 9% of the vote. The Danish People’s Party won 14.4% of Denmark’s vote. In Slovakia a low turnout of only 19.4% propelled an anti-gypsy extremist ultra-nationalist to a seat.
Former London mayor Ken Livingstone pointed to worrying parallels with the rise of Germany’s Nazis in the early 1930s, when there was also a global recession.
He said: “The economic crisis and abuse of MPs’ expenses have provided fertile ground for them. The BNP claims to be a normal political party. In fact, they are 21st century Nazis. As in the 1930s, they exploit people’s anxieties in an economic crisis to scapegoat minorities and ultimately threaten all our democratic freedoms.”
For anyone who knows about 2012, none of these events should come as a surprise.
