Nowadays, and since the 1980s, far-right parties seem to gain more and more influence all over Europe. Each country has its own or even several: the British National Party and UK Independence Party in Britain, the National Front in France, the Golden Dawn in Greece, the Northern League in Italy or the Vlaams Belang in Belgium are examples amongst many others. This rise of such extreme right-wing parties is worrisome since they all praise for often highly controversial values and are considered by many as a threat for the democracy. Also, it is interesting to notes that the breakthrough of these parties has been important in among the states members of the European Union, and that furthermore they are all in favour of a return to a more conventional sovereignty. This would be achieved by ending the European Union and more broadly by restraining globalization. These aims may appear like a regress in view of all it has been accomplished over the last few years. In this way it would be interesting to answer to the following research question: what common characteristics do the supporters of far-right parties in Europe have? In order to offer an answer few theories will be introduced and analysed to determine the degree of their accuracy.
Theories
It is often said that the main characteristics of far-right parties and their supporters are xenophobia, nationalism and a politics of anti-immigration. This is the opinion of Catherine Fieschi who analysed the rise of the National Front in France, led first by Jean-Marie Le Pen and then by his daughter Marine Le Pen. According to her voting for their party means supporting anti-Europe, anti-immigration, anti-system and anti-Islam politics (2012, p. 11). But she points out that what led...
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In fact, as tensions continue to rise in the Middle East, they have been further exacerbated. In just the past few years, France has been struck by numerous radical terrorist attacks from the Charlie Hebdo attack, to the Nice Bastille Day attacks, to the infamous Paris bombings that took place a year ago. While tensions have remained high since the 1970s when immigrants first came under scrutiny by the French upper classes, never before has such global attention been paid to France’s immigration and religious toleration policies. What is even more concerning is that the perpetrators of some of these attacks grew up in the banlieues of Paris. As La Haine predicted, since the institutional problems facing the French government continue to be ignored, the fall will be that much more
One idea shared by all fascist movements is the lack of a consistent political standard behind the ideology. Each individual leader who was associated with a fascist movement would handle every situation a little differently with no sense of tradition or law. However, one very ordinary aspect of fascism is the unmerciful drive to achieve and maintain state power and supremacy. On that road to conquest, fascists are willing to abandon any principle and adopt an issue more in acceptance and more likely to gain them followers.
Fascism in Europe rose and spread quickly because of the World War I which left very complex and sptriual vacuum behind.Europe was shaken by violent political and economic convulsions and in half of Europe the old conservative order had dissappeared.The moral values of the world of yesterday had vanished and the middle calsses had become very poor.In fact, the last vestiges of civilization seemed threatened by a new, highly popular phenomenon whose name is Bolshevism.Those who believed that a strong leadership and a new order were needed but who found communism unaccaptable craved a political alternative and it was the fascism.Fascism was nationalist,elitist and antiliberal and als...
Cooper, Barry, Allan Kornberg and William Mishler. The Resurgence of Conservatism in Anglo-American Democracies. Durham: Duke University Press, 1988. Print.
Nationalism at its core is the support of a country. The goal of a country is to have some sort of resonance within the individuals that reside there that call themselves citizens. If the citizens don’t feel any connection with their country, they may move to find one that they feel closer too. Once found, they may support the country over others, defend it within conversations of politics or just find groups that have the same ideals they do about the country. This papers purpose is to illustrate the pros of nationalism as well as its cons.
...itism and attempting to appeal to ultra-nationalist sensibilities there is a definite racist element to their discourse. Such racism is evident in the National Front’s stance against immigration where they argue that Arab Islamic immigrants are unlikely to assimilate on the basis of the alien nature of their culture and in the idea that immigration should be banned and the rights of French citizens be made a national priority. Whilst attempts have been made to make this stance appear more moderate and in line with popular discourse in recent years, such as by aligning anti-immigration with cultural incompatibility these arguments simply attempt to mask the true nature of the National Front’s policies. Despite attempts to focus on other elements of party policy it is clear that underneath the rhetoric of Marine Le Pen the National Front is inherently a racist party.
Travers, Tony. 2009. "Time for change? Electoral politics after the local and European elections." Public Policy Research 16, no. 2: 91-96. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 27, 2010).
The most important value of nationalism to democracy lies in the fact that it has the capacity to unite individual citizens into a single entity with shared beliefs. Democracy requires a definition of demos or who are included in the game and who are not (Nodia 6). Wherever the boundaries of the playing field are in dispute, democratic institutions (such as participation, representation, or cooperation) simply cannot function. Thus, for democracy to o...
Lelieveldt, H. and Princen, S. 2011The politics of the European Union. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Europe has a history of war and conflict that predates living memory and the idea of a united Europe is something that appears repeatedly in that history. Hitler, Napoleon, and the many Roman Emperors all sought a united Europe. Their quests although in many ways motivated by a horrifying desire for power sparked the minds of philosophers and other political thinkers to imagine Europe united in harmony and peace despite national differences. Today we have the European Union which is quite unique. After the horrors, bloodshed, and economic disaster of the twentieth century, in a desire for peace and harmony and economic and political prosperity twenty-seven states have limited their national sovereignty.2 With national interests and ambition still in mind these countries see the European Union and supranational governance and the benefits of peace and prosperity therein as something worthwhile. However, in the history of European integration there has been much conflict and Euroskepticism. Some see unity in diversity and diversity in unity as impossible, and the existence of differentiation in the EU as highly problematic. However, differentiation in the European Union’s integration process is not the hindrance it is often defined as, rather it creates further cooperation in Europe bringing the European Union closer to its objectives of peace, and economic and political growth, resulting in a more effective and efficient bureaucracy. Differentiation in the EU’s integration process has created more successful integration as it allows the nations who wish t...
...derately nationalist platforms control over half of the popular vote. On the other hand, Islamic parties saw a sharp decline in public support from approximately 40percent in 2004 to less than one quarter this year.
As German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated, “If Europe fails on the question of refugees, then it won’t be the Europe we wished for”.
In the past, the French government focused specifically on outlawing racism with the French Constitution and the Penal Code of 1994. Both of these documents are described by the United Nations as “a veritable battery of legislation against any racially discriminatory act or practice” (Criminalization of Racist Acts, 1999). These government measures seek to prevent the spread of racism by forbidding blatant displays of xenophobia. While these laws are a step in the right direction to preventing widespread racism, the government has also fallen short by claiming there are no minorities in France. In fact, France is the only nation on the Council of Europe that has refused to sign the “Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities” and according to the World Directory of Minorities, France has the worst record in terms of rights to minorities (“World Directory of Minorities”). By refusing to admit that there are minorities in France that need protection, the government has left many immigrant groups behind.
Because it could be quite complicated to look at the EU model from a point of classical democratic nation-state, it seems to be reasonable to discuss this problem, not by abstract reasoning, but by focusing on a concrete case. European Union is the best case available, which in recent decades has developed into a new type of political system with enormous consequences on democracy and governance in its member states. Despite repeated attempts for major institutional reforms, this system is likely to persist in its basic structures for the future and is unlikely to develop into a federal state or to disintegrate into a classic international organization. The present state of democracy and governance in the EU is therefore worth to be analyzed, as it is not a mere transitory state.
Garner, R., Ferdinand, P. and Lawson, S. (2009) Introduction to Politics. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.