The Rise of the Right-Wing Across the European Union

#1

Personally, I first noticed a sharp increase in the amount of right-wing parties on the last EU election ballot paper. [2014] It mirrored the results right across Europe, with UKIP making massive gains in the UK, Front Nationale coming to the fore in France and Golden Dawn making significant gains in Greece. Similar parties made gains in the Nordic countries too, where some already had a foothold.

Grass-roots street movements are also on the rise eg- the EDL [English Defence League] & PEGIDA in Germany. There is even now a PEGIDA UK movement, though support is not strong.

From a Meritocracy point of view, none of this bodes well for the future. The results of the coming May elections in the UK should be interesting, concerning how well parties such as UKIP, Britain First & the BNP will do.

The doctrine of the right-wing British parties is to blame the immigrants for everything & leave the EU. I’m sure that’s echoed with similar groups across Europe. Only it times of hardship & austerity do these right-wing boot boys get a foot in the door. eg the rise of Hitler in the 1930’s.

The one ray of hope is that thankfully, Greece did not swing towards the out-and-out nazi party Golden Dawn in their recent elections, and went for a left of centre coalition.

Otherwise, I sense our job is about to get harder on this side of the Atlantic. Let’s keep an eye on what happens in the UK on May 7th…

#2

In Finland there is Perussuomalaiset which is against immigrants, EU, funds directed to developing countries etc. It is posible that it will become a major goverment party after a few weeks (we have parliament elections on the 19th of April). We also have a new party called Independence Party which demands (instead of just opposing or being critical) Finland out of EU and also out of Euro. So yes, there is similar groups here.

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#3

Hi,

I wrote a response under the Immigration posting because I think that the rise of Right-Wing parties is intrinsically linked to the issue of immigration. As you will see, I also think that immigration is intrinsically linked to economic policies.

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#4

… I took a closer look to the Independence Party’s ideas and website. I had a completely wrong image of them, media and or blogs etc. whatever had done the job instead of me finding out what it really is about. I might actually vote for them in the elections.

#5

That’s true about immigration being linked to economic policies. The rise of the right-wing & neo-nazism is also linked to bare faced racism & religous intolerance as well though.

Here are the sickening faces of Fascism alive and well in Europe today!

‘Faces Of Hate!’ …

England, UK

EDL - English Defence League

A Branch of Pegida - Germany

Pegida - UK

Golden Dawn - Greece

Golden Dawn, Greece

Hope those pictures aren’t too shocking, but we all need to open our eyes!

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#6

When you said “bare-faced”, I wasn’t expecting so many masks! :wink:

I don’t think that ‘hooligans’ are the main drivers and participants in the “Rise of Right Wing” parties. Their presence is nothing new. “The Rise in the Right” is that your average European voter observes and feels that their culture is in peril, and that immigration is out of control. Do people really care about Left or Right? I think that they care about things that affect their lives, mostly. If parties on the Center or Left addressed these issues in a real way, they would take the wind ‘right’ out of their sails. When we conflate the average citizen’s concerns in regards to culture and immigration with racism and intolerance, we are no closer to coming up with solutions for any of these things. However, I’m certainly not claiming that these elements don’t exist, especially among hooligans.

Tolerance is a very tricky issue. You have demonstrated yourself that there are limits to your tolerance(through disapproval of EDL, etc). When tolerance is extended to the wholly intolerant, the entire edifice of tolerance begins to collapse. I agree with religious tolerance, but not when substantial factions of the religion actively preach, demonstrate(or remain tacit), to violent intolerance towards the tolerant. That’s the limit. Psychologically, to extend tolerance to that extent certainly does resemble the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ and even Doublespeak.

Which came first? The chicken or the egg?

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#7

“You have demonstrated yourself that their are limits to your tolerance” ??

At what time was this? I’ve been nothing but helpful on these boards, even at times of disagreement.

Further replies or comments regarding myself should be taken off-line where they belong, in a private message if you wish, in line with the guide-lines of the forum. Let’s stick to the topic of the thread if we can, it’s not about me or you, it’s about the rise of the right-wing in Europe. The evidence is there in the pics I posted.

Yes, agree with the sentiment of your pics - the pro-islamist street groups do themselves no favours either, both sides are stoking the fire.

#8

This is simply a misunderstanding. This was not a personal attack on you whatsoever, and is directly related to the subject matter. What I meant was that you have shown the limits of your tolerance by not tolerating things like the EDL, etc. I was simply drawing parallels in the argumentation by demonstrating a manner in which tolerance can be practiced, and that everybody has their limits. I was most definitely not at all referring to anything to do with your conduct on the forum at large. I agree that you seem affable. :relaxed:

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#9

Thanks for that, I got the wrong end of the stick there. My bad :wink:

I try my best to find a solution that both parties agree on when occasional conflict arises around here. I pride myself on hopefully not having insulted anyone personally, only disagreeing with their opinion on the topic.

It’s easy for ppl to go into knee-jerk reactions to criticism, myself included, though I try my best to avoid it. There’s nothing worse than a good thread degenerating into personal insults, that’s why I said let’s take it off-line, just in case that was about to happen…

Phew, we’re all cool :wink:

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#10

Not to worry. This is a very difficult issue to speak about. I could also have been more careful with my wording to avoid confusion. :smile:

To clarify a bit further, I don’t mean to come across as disagreeing with you overall, I’m mostly just trying to paint a fuller picture. I agree that if certain factions of the Right were to come to power that this would be something that people would not be happy with at all(even those who would vote for them). They might solve one or two problems but create 100 new ones. I also think that the neo-con/lib, centrist left/right flip-flop is simply just trying to maintain the status-quo for as long as they can and the cracks are just increasing more and more. The Rise of The Right just further emphasizes the need for a new political structure which goes beyond Left and Right, and that is where Meritocracy comes in, even if many concepts need to be fleshed out further.

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