Bureau Recommends: New threat of the far right
The Bureau Recommends an article in Foreign Policy magazine, which argues that the far right is experiencing a resurgence in Europe and has taken on a cunning new strategy of depicting itself as the last bulwark against Islam.
For the past six months the magazine has conducted a survey of right-wing activists and sympathisers across Europe. After the atrocity in Oslo, the research now seems sharply prescient.
The magazine found the far right has abandoned its traditional overt racism and jingoism, in preference of depicting itself as the defender of Western cultural heritage against Islam – one of the claims made by Anders Behring Breivik.
Far-right parties have portrayed mainstream politicians as weak and out of touch with ordinary people, the article states, and have seen a growth in support in France, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Sweden.
The authors say this has also shifted mainstream parties to the right –‘Cameron and Angela Merkel both recently announced the death of multiculturalism, and Nicolas Sarkozy’s burqa ban has been a vote-winner in France.’
And at grassroots level, groups such as the English Defence League have effectively employed social networking sites to mobilize ‘between 2,000 to 3,000 people for demonstrations’.
The picture is far from simple, say the authors, but the article concludes:
‘The world can no longer afford to ignore this growing threat.’
