The Far Right in Europe By Walter Baier Speech given at the editor’s conference of Socialist Register 2016, York University Toronto, 17.2.2015
In last year’s European elections of which in three countries (Great Britain, Denmark and France) radical right-wing nationalist parties became the strongest forces. The number of right-wing nationalist Members of European Parliament (MEPs) has grown to a good fourth which are belonging to different groups in the EP while a considerable number of right-wing radical and neo-fascist MEPs are not organised in groups and Hungary’s FIDESZ despite exhibiting the characteristics of a right-wing radical party in many ways, has found its place in the European People’s Party. “Radical Right” seems to be too vague as it applies to a spectrum including open neo-Nazis and right-wing parties having adapted their appearance to suit mainstream media. The left’s historical experience in confronting it is substantial and extensive. But this observation must not mislead into overlooking the new factors. No contemporary described hitherto the context of the right-wing development and the capitalist crisis more clearly than Karl Polanyi. In his principal work, The Great Transformation, he wrote that socialism and nationalism originated in the milieu of a crisis-ridden capitalism. Both they were the reaction to the collapse of the ‘utopian endeavour’ of constructing societies and international relations on the basis of a ‘self-regulating market system’. Nowadays increased votes for right-wing radical parties are often interpreted simplistically as the protest of frustrated underclasses. However as data for many countries show the electorates of far right parties embrace also middle strata and are even spreading among upper-income groups. Moreover right-wing radical thinking is nearer to the neoliberal zeitgeist than one might think. As Irish political scientist Cas Mudde writes it is a ‘pathology of normalcy’ rather than a ‘normal pathology’. [...] full: http://www.transform-network.net/en/blog/blog-2015/news/detail/Blog/the-far-right-in-europe-1.html _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
