Peter Goodspeed: Flirting with fascism, why Europe can’t shake its weakness for Nazism
Peter Goodspeed: Flirting with fascism, why Europe can
Like vermin in a time of pestilence, neo-Nazi groups appear to be enjoying a resurgence in a Europe plagued by increasing financial chaos and uncertainty. As Europe celebrated the 67th anniversary of V.E. Day and the defeat of Hitler’s Nazis this week, it also reeled in disbelief as an angry Greek electorate gave 7% of their votes to the neo-Nazi, anti-immigrant Golden Dawn party.
Boasting an “army of brave boys in black,” who strut the streets of rundown Greek neighbourhoods, flicking off Hitler-esque salutes and staging anti-immigration rallies around a swastika-like flag that is based on an ancient Greek decorative border called a meandros, Golden Dawn became the first far-right party to enter the Greek parliament since the collapse of a military dictatorship in 1974.
In an echo of Europe’s tortured past, Nazism, with its association with the Holocaust and horrors of the Second World War, not only survives, but in some instances is thriving.
In Greece, extremists have united the marginalized, the disenchanted and the disempowered with promises to turn the clock back to an idyllic “pure” past.
“Europe has seen a boost in right-wing extremism,” says Nora Langenbacher, head of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation’s, Combating Right-Wing Extremism project, in Berlin.
“Particularly in times of crisis, right-wing extremists and right-wing populists in many places are trying to use the fears of European citizens to promote their ‘cause’ by providing simple answers to complex social challenges.”
Neo-Nazis, almost by definition, are anti-democratic and confrontational. They seek to create a new world order based on extreme provocation and, in some cases, far-right terror. They dream of the day when society and the state will collapse and a “Fourth Reich” can be built on the rubble.
They advocate turning the clock back – ending the European Union and returning to nation states centred on ethnic or cultural “purity,” dropping out of NATO, and abandoning the global economic order.
A sub-culture that is frequently associated with skinheads and violent thugs, neo-Nazis wallow in shocking symbols of the past – swastikas, jackboots, stiff-armed salutes, racial violence, and genocidal threats made against Jews, blacks, Muslims and gays.
But opinions once limited to Germany’s extreme far-right seem to be spreading into mainstream politics. A survey released last year by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a left-of-centre think tank linked to Germany’s opposition Social Democrats, claimed that 13% of Germans say they want a new “fuhrer” to lead the country and 14.9% agreed with the statement: “There is something special about Jews, something peculiar. They don’t really fit in with us.”
Jamie Bartlett, a researcher with the British think tank Demos, recently surveyed 13,000 Facebook supporters of populist far-right parties in Europe and concluded they are generally defined by their opposition to immigration and a concern for protecting national and European culture, especially against a perceived threat from Islam.
“Our results suggest there is a new generation of populists that are not the racist, xenophobic reactionaries they are sometimes portrayed as,” Mr. Bartlett says. “They are young, angry, and disillusioned with the current crop of automaton political elites, who they do not think are responding to the concerns and worries they face in their lives.
“The patronizing account of populists is that they are the ‘losers’ of economic liberalism, cornered animals lashing out at mainstream politicians by voting for a tub-thumping demagogue. This is wrong. They are not particularly more likely to be unemployed than the national average, according to our survey. Their worries about immigration are driven by the threat they believe it poses to national and cultural identity, rather than economic considerations.”
Peter Goodspeed: Flirting with fascism, why Europe can
Like vermin in a time of pestilence, neo-Nazi groups appear to be enjoying a resurgence in a Europe plagued by increasing financial chaos and uncertainty. As Europe celebrated the 67th anniversary of V.E. Day and the defeat of Hitler’s Nazis this week, it also reeled in disbelief as an angry Greek electorate gave 7% of their votes to the neo-Nazi, anti-immigrant Golden Dawn party.
Boasting an “army of brave boys in black,” who strut the streets of rundown Greek neighbourhoods, flicking off Hitler-esque salutes and staging anti-immigration rallies around a swastika-like flag that is based on an ancient Greek decorative border called a meandros, Golden Dawn became the first far-right party to enter the Greek parliament since the collapse of a military dictatorship in 1974.
In an echo of Europe’s tortured past, Nazism, with its association with the Holocaust and horrors of the Second World War, not only survives, but in some instances is thriving.
In Greece, extremists have united the marginalized, the disenchanted and the disempowered with promises to turn the clock back to an idyllic “pure” past.
“Europe has seen a boost in right-wing extremism,” says Nora Langenbacher, head of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation’s, Combating Right-Wing Extremism project, in Berlin.
“Particularly in times of crisis, right-wing extremists and right-wing populists in many places are trying to use the fears of European citizens to promote their ‘cause’ by providing simple answers to complex social challenges.”
Neo-Nazis, almost by definition, are anti-democratic and confrontational. They seek to create a new world order based on extreme provocation and, in some cases, far-right terror. They dream of the day when society and the state will collapse and a “Fourth Reich” can be built on the rubble.
They advocate turning the clock back – ending the European Union and returning to nation states centred on ethnic or cultural “purity,” dropping out of NATO, and abandoning the global economic order.
A sub-culture that is frequently associated with skinheads and violent thugs, neo-Nazis wallow in shocking symbols of the past – swastikas, jackboots, stiff-armed salutes, racial violence, and genocidal threats made against Jews, blacks, Muslims and gays.
But opinions once limited to Germany’s extreme far-right seem to be spreading into mainstream politics. A survey released last year by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a left-of-centre think tank linked to Germany’s opposition Social Democrats, claimed that 13% of Germans say they want a new “fuhrer” to lead the country and 14.9% agreed with the statement: “There is something special about Jews, something peculiar. They don’t really fit in with us.”
Jamie Bartlett, a researcher with the British think tank Demos, recently surveyed 13,000 Facebook supporters of populist far-right parties in Europe and concluded they are generally defined by their opposition to immigration and a concern for protecting national and European culture, especially against a perceived threat from Islam.
“Our results suggest there is a new generation of populists that are not the racist, xenophobic reactionaries they are sometimes portrayed as,” Mr. Bartlett says. “They are young, angry, and disillusioned with the current crop of automaton political elites, who they do not think are responding to the concerns and worries they face in their lives.
“The patronizing account of populists is that they are the ‘losers’ of economic liberalism, cornered animals lashing out at mainstream politicians by voting for a tub-thumping demagogue. This is wrong. They are not particularly more likely to be unemployed than the national average, according to our survey. Their worries about immigration are driven by the threat they believe it poses to national and cultural identity, rather than economic considerations.”
