The resurgence of the neofascist right in Europe seems to be headed straight for the presidential palaces all across the continent:
The BBC reports that an early poll in the upcoming French presidential elections shows National Front leader Marine LePen beating sitting president Nicolas Sarkozy by a small margin. The same poll also puts her ahead of the likely Socialist candidate, Martine Aubry. LePen is the daughter of Jean-Marie LePen, the long-time leader of the National Front. She inherited the leadership of the far right party last year and currently serves as a member of the European Parliament. Under her leadership, the National Front has curtailed some of its anti-Semitic rhetoric in favor of rallying against the new bogeyman of the Western world: Muslims.
Meanwhile, a recent opinion poll in the U.K. indicates that almost half of the population would support an anti-immigrant far right party if it toned down the thuggish, violent behavior of the British National Party. The BNP were humiliated in last year’s elections, losing 26 out of 28 of the local council seats they controlled, so it’s particularly striking that such a large portion of the British public would support a far-right party.
This Project Syndicate op-ed piece by Bard College political scientist Ian Buruma looks at the new face of the hard right in European politics and their likely continued electoral success. He argues that as the right-wing parties find their way into coalition governments, they will of necessity have to tone down their harsher rhetoric, but the shift in public opinion appears to be willing to meet them at least part of the way. If no Hitler looks to rise out of their advance, perhaps things will not spiral out of control, but factors like the flailing economies of a number of European countries don’t bode well for a smooth integration of right-wing extremists into governments.
