-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/04/22/wpen222.xml&s
Sheet=/news/2002/04/22/ixnewstop.html
}}}>Begin
ight-wing tide surges straight to the heart of Europe
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
(Filed: 22/04/2002)
EUROPE'S rising Right-wing tide swept into the core countries of the European
Union yesterday, rocking Germany's Social Democrats and threatening France's
socialist government.
Over the last two years, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, and Norway have all
turned against the centre-Left consensus that had such a lock on Europe during the
1990s, opting instead for law- and-order parties promising tax cuts, deregulation, and
a much tougher line on immigrants.
But the pace is now quickening as ever more radical figures build mass support,
often outflanking the conventional centre-Right with wild rhetoric.
Even Holland, the model of easy-going tolerance, has fallen under the spell of Pim
Fortuyn, an anti- Islamic populist who came from nowhere last month to take control
of Rotterdam.
Just across the border, the Flemish Vlaams Blok far- Right movement is now the
biggest party in Antwerp, much to the horror of Belgium's press and the political
establishment.
In both Rotterdam and Antwerp, Muslim populations dominate very large quarters,
living in uneasy truce with a white working class that has never accepted the
legitimacy of mass immigration from the Third World.
Now France's industrial cities, led by Marseilles, are following suit, and the
political
earthquake can no longer be ignored.
The second-place finish of Jean-Marie Le Pen is all the more stunning given that the
Right-wing vote was split so many ways - shared with the Hunting and Fishing Party;
a rival National Front candidate; another candidate promising zero-tolerance on
crime; and Jean-Pierre Chevenement extolling "sovereignty".
Taken together they amount to a devastating defeat for all the forces of the French
Left, challenging the long-held assumption that the French nation is fundamentally
committed to a bedrock welfare state in a "social Europe" with high taxes.
The shift to the Right is subtly different across the mosaic of Europe's tribal
nations.
In Germany, the Christian Democrats increased their vote from 22 to 37 per cent in
the depressed rust- belt land of Saxony-Anhalt, carving into the core support of the
Left by turning the election into a verdict on Chancellor Schr�der's failure to make a
dent on Germany's four million unemployed.
The pro-business Free Democrats went up from four to 13 per cent.
While in Denmark last November, the free-market Ventre Party swept the country
after 80 years in the wilderness, promising to preserve Denmark's public services,
but also tapping into fears that mass immigration threatened the nation's cradle-to-
grave welfare model, and the tight-knit feeling of Danish society.
In Brussels last night, European Union officials were remaining studiously silent
about the surging fortunes of M Le Pen's French National Front.
Nobody wants to repeat the disastrous mistake made two years ago when the EU
reacted precipitously to the triumph of Jorg Haider's far-Right Freedom Party in
Austria by issuing a formal warning that Vienna would face punitive measures if
Haider's party was allowed to join the ruling coalition.
The move was widely viewed as an attempt to overturn the result of a free
democratic election in a member state before there had been any violation of
civilized conduct or human rights.
In the end the EU was forced to climb down ignominiously.
At the time, the Left controlled most EU capitals. Now Silvio Berlusconi is in power in
Rome, backed by a coalition including the "post-fascist" Alleanza Nazionale, which
boasts Allesandra Mussollini as one of its leaders, as well as the anti-immigrant
Northern League of Umberto Bossi, who recently excoriated the EU as a relic of
"Stalinism".
In Madrid, Spain's centre-Right prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, holds the chair as
the EU's rotating president, and no EU initiative can get off the ground without his
blessing.
9 March 2002: 'Holland's Haider' wins elections in Rotterdam
22 November 2001: Denmark's Right ends 80 years in wilderness
15 May 2001: Berlusconi voted in to run Italy 'like a company'
13 September 2000: Victory for Austria as EU lifts sanctions
5 February 2000: Vienna is cold-shouldered by its European partners
5 February 2000: Jeers as far Right takes share of power in Austria
Related reports
Le Pen's poll triumph rocks France
� Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002.
End<{{{
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