But, as expected they use the usual language meant to describe people who want to control immigration as “nativists,” “populists” and “Islamophobes.”
Nevertheless, I found this article useful because it does confirm that what they call the Far Right or Radical Right is gaining power in Europe. Hoorah!
Entitled:
How the Far Right Has Reshaped the Refugee Debate in Europe
Couldn’t one actually say that the refugee and migrant invasion is so great that sensible Germans, Poles, Hungarians, Swiss etc. are saying enough is enough because they do not want to be overrun and out bred.
The Open Borders Far Left, by permitting the refugee invasion, is shaping the debate in my view. The sensible people are reacting to the Left’s aggression.
Here is the opening segment of a longer interview. It is worth reading in its entirety.
Across Europe, parties on the far right are experiencing renewed vigor, fueled by economic uncertainty, cynicism toward the European Union, and anger over an ongoing crisis that has brought more than 1.5 million refugees and migrants to the West since 2015.
By last October, there were right-wing nationalist members of parliament in 24 European countries. In Germany, the EU’s largest country, the Alternative for Germany party became the first far-right group in more than six decades to win seats in parliament, with co-leader Alexander Gauland vowing after the election to fight “an invasion of foreigners.”
These parties have helped reshape the immigration debate in Europe. In countries like Hungary, razor-wire border fences have gone up to keep refugees and migrants out. Elsewhere on the continent, there’s been an upsurge of protests against refugees. In Poland, for example, an independence day celebration of around 60,000 people this past November was marred by thousands of far-right nationalists waving banners of “White Europe,” and chanting slogans of “No to Islam.”
According to Cas Mudde, a political scientist at the University of Georgia and a leading expert on far-right politics in Europe, Europe’s far right has used the refugee crisis to its advantage — channeling decades-old stereotypes about immigrants to rally support for their cause. These parties didn’t create anti-immigrant stereotypes, he says. Rather, they feed on them to influence the conversation.
Ahead of FRONTLINE’s Jan. 23 premiere of Exodus: The Journey Continues, we spoke with Mudde about the rise of Europe’s radical right, the refugee crisis, and why he considers the current political situation a “crisis of liberal democracy.”
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What are the defining tenets of Europe’s far-right movement?
The vast majority of the parties that are relevant are parties that are best called “radical right.” That means that they accept the basics of democracy — that the people elect their leaders — but they have major problems with some of the liberal protections of democracy. Most notably, minority rights. And so, they combine nativism, authoritarianism and populism. [Watch the increasing use of the word authoritarian because the Far Left is attaching that word to President Trump.—ed]
The assumption is that nativists are bad people and Frontline and Mudde want you to get that message loud and clear. LOL! they worked the word “nativism” into the story six times!
I might suggest ‘preservationists’ is a more applicable term—-preserving culture and western civilization seems like a more accurate driving force for a growing number of Europeans and Americans.
Frontline:
We’ve obviously seen our own resurgence of many of these same beliefs in the United States. How has Europe’s nativist, populist movement paralleled what’s happening here?
Well, in the narrow sense of the movement, there are not so many links. The radical right forces here, they are first and foremost American organizations with very few ties to Europe. Much of their nativism stands in a very long tradition of American nativism, going back at the very least to the mid-19th century. It is a bit different because there is a different enemy: Mexicans. [Huh?—ed] It also feeds into, of course, the specific history of racism and African Americans that Europe doesn’t have.
Look at his language dripping with bias—Islamophobic!
The strongest ties are actually within the Islamophobic community, because that argument is very similar. They have the same view because Islamophobia is not just about the Muslims inside of your country, it’s also against so-called “global Islam.” But I find it pretty stunning how prominent and salient Islamophobia is in a country like the United States, which has such a tiny Muslim population, which is not the case with the Muslim population in Europe.
Could that be because Americans are smart and are studying Islam and looking to Europe as the canary in a coal mine and they don’t want to be a dead canary country (as Mudde’s homeland is about to be, or is already!).
Much more here.
See my complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive, here.
