The Rise of the Right: Europe's Scary Solution to Immigration

By Handan T. Satiroglu, The Women's International Perspective. Posted January 29, 2009.

Not too far from the Baroque palaces and Gothic cathedrals that made the city of Vienna famous, a group of jubilant men and women are packed into a café. Glasses clink with each congratulatory toast. Jubilations like "long live populism," and "Austria is the Freedom Party" fly randomly across the room. On that memorable September evening, I watched the celebration of the far-right triumph in Austria. It was the Austrian ‘extremist' right's best performance since World War II.

If the old face of the Far-Right in Europe resembled that of a combative fascist, these new ordinary faces put those images to rest. Gone are the days when support for the radical right came from neo-Nazi elements in European society; they now come from ordinary citizens, concerned not only about bleeding social welfare programs, but also from worries about the continued influx of immigration -- a feeling that is likely to worsen as recession hangs over the continent.

"I voted for the Freedom Party to stop immigrants from burdening our social welfare system," says Lukas, a grandfatherly figure and government employee. A former supporter of the Social Democrats, he gestures towards the rushing pedestrians outside the café, "Austria has inhaled enough people. We are full."

Echoing similar sentiments, 35 year old Brigitte, a nurse practitioner who is proud to have led a major campaign in her neighborhood against the expansion of an Islamic center, claims, "the center already attracts hordes of people a day, and causes enough problems with congestion." Poised and confident, she continues: "The people who use the Islamic center do not try to integrate into society, or even socialize with us. None of the other parties would hear our concerns ... That's why we voted for Heinz-Christian Strache."

Not too far from the café, a mural reads: "Arab, go home."

Such is the dynamic in today's European race relations. A December Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project reports anti-immigrant, and especially anti-Muslim sentiments, to be growing steadily across the continent. Noting that the increase in Muslim prejudice has occurred over a period of decades, the report claims that nearly 52 percent of Spaniards expressed a negative opinion of Muslims -- a view echoed by 50 percent of Germans, 46 percent of Poles, and 38 percent of French people. According to an April Georgetown University report, 67 percent of Dutch, and 80 percent of Danes agree with the statement, "the growing interaction between the Muslim world and the West is a menace to freedom."

Bubbling for years, the resentment against foreigners has found expression in the success of the far-right, not only in Austria, but throughout Europe. A wake-up call to ruling socialist elitists, Europeans have propped up governments that are marching to the beat of the anti-immigrant drum. Only two of the 14 countries that were governed by the leftist or centrist political parties in Europe a decade ago remain so: Spain and Portugal.

Once a welcoming multicultural haven, Denmark's voters have given the Danish People's Party its fourth consecutive hike in voting share, making it the third largest party in Europe. In Switzerland where the foreign-born population hovers around 20 percent, the nationalist Swiss People's Party regularly receives 29 percent of the vote; in France, Nicolas Sarkozy grabbed the presidency after mimicking the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the unforgiving nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen. Netherlands, Sweden and Italy have all witnessed the rise of conservative discourse, while the second largest party in Norway runs on an anti-immigrant platform. And if there is anything that the Flemish and Walloons of Belgium can agree upon, it is the curtailment of the progressive Islamization of their society.

The term Islamization has gained much popularity in recent years, especially in the right-wing media. As European Muslims demand more mosques, state-funded Islamic schools, and even the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law) in their host countries, the term refers to the gradual process by which European society is becoming increasingly and visibly Muslim.

Unquestionably, an exploding Islamic population remains the driver behind changing voter patterns. "It is everything. Or nearly everything," says Abigail Esman, an American writer based in the Netherlands who specializes in writing on radical Islam and post 9/11 political tensions in the West. "The rising immigration and the conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims have stirred voters to look to politicians who tend to take a less liberal view of social economic systems and in most cases, who take a hard line against immigration, particularly of Muslims."

In just three short decades, Islam has moved from essentially being a nonfactor to a religion that challenges the European identity. Perhaps nothing illustrates this change more graphically than the omnipresent symbols of Islam sprinkled across European cities and towns: state-funded Islamic schools, halal butcher shops, Arabic signs in store fronts, ladies in burqas and headscarves, Turkish or Moroccan flags fluttering over residential buildings. Sharia courts have already been adopted in many cities in the UK after persistent demands by British Muslims.

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