One of the first countries to have a solid right wing party representation in the EU was the Netherlands. The sudden surge of right wing sentiment arose from a terrible incident in which a free thinking director, Theo Van Gogh, was killed by an Islamist who protested his film "Fitna", which aimed to bring awareness to the plight of Muslim women who are abused.
But that said, the problem of growing right wing extremism has since spread far and wide in Europe, with strong representation even in parliament in at least 4 countries, including Italy and Hungary.
Now the right wing politicians want to go one step further. They want to go global, so to speak.
This week, right wing politicians from several European countries are meeting in the Hague. The meeting was the brainchild of notorious right wing politician Geert Wilders. He will speak at the televised meeting, together with Marine Le Pen, of France, another notorious neofascist ideologue.
What Wilder and Le Pen want, in substance, is to have a solid representation in the European Parliament, from which, of course, they suppose to table legislation that fits their nationalist agenda.
An earlier attempt at a European wide party fell apart in 2007, when the Italian counterpart, Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of the Fascist despot, railed against Romanian people in general, and fracturing the nascent alliance before it was able to solidify.
Wilders, of course, already has enthusiastic followers in other right wing politicians. One of them is Filip Dewinter of Belgium, the other in Heinz-Cristian Strache of Austria. Not to be left out, the Lega Nord, the ultranationalist party of Italy, neatly aligned itself with Wilder's propositions.
Although Wilders says he is not a right wing extremist and has tried to distance himself from the more extreme Hungarian nationalist party, or the Neo Nazi party of Germany, he is patently allowing Le Pen's anti-Semitic and nationalist ideology to be uttered, even though Wilders himself is a self proclaimed Israeli supporter, probably more due to the fact that he is vehemently against Islamic customs that are too far removed from European, and Dutch, progressive ways.
For Wilders, in short, the enemies are Islam and immigration. He was enraged at the thought of Turkey entering the EU. Le Pen for that matter, wants out of the Euro zone altogether, and she has many echoes in different EU countries who are putting in serious doubt the benefits of a Euro zone, while citing the disastrous consequences its policies have had on the local economies.
But if anyone thought that right wing politicians were on the fringe, their advances should prompt anyone to take careful notice. Just recently, Le Pen's far right wing party got a huge chunk of the primary vote, which excluded the socialists in France, due to the low turnout. In fact, the elections will be against Le Pen's party and the Democratic party. And that, for a country with a storied history of Socialism like France, is almost unthinkable.
One of the aspects of EU policy that is giving these politicians the support they are enjoying, is the unfettered flow of migrants that constantly lands on European shores. Knowing that all frontiers have been abolished, migrants risk their life day in and day out, because no matter where they land, they have the opportunity at trying their luck in every country of the EU union, without any hindrance to their movements. However, the calls for a restructuring of immigration laws in the EU zone that would better manage the arrivals has all but brought any initiative to give migrants asylum and to better plan for their introduction and integration in different European countries to a halt, since such ideas, many contend, would only bolster the right wingers' contention that the EU zone has become a free-for-all for people who come to its shores to live off of 'benevolent' societies.
Partial Source : Spiegel Intl/ 11.18.13
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