Study by Demos thinktank reveals thousands of self-declared followers
of hardline nationalist parties and groups
Europe's 'nationalist populists' and far right - interactive [http://
www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/nov/06/europe-far-right-nationalist-populist-interactive"
title="]
Peter Walker and Matthew Taylor
Monday November 7 2011
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/06/far-right-rise-europe-report
The far right is on the rise across Europe as a new generation of
young, web-based supporters embrace hardline nationalist and anti-
immigrant groups, a study has revealed ahead of a meeting of
politicians and academics in Brussels to examine the phenomenon.
Research by the British thinktank Demos [http://www.guardian.co.uk/
world/anders-behring-breivik" title="] for the first time examines
attitudes among supporters of the far right online. Using
advertisements on Facebook group pages, they persuaded more than
10,000 followers of 14 parties and street organisations in 11
countries to fill in detailed questionnaires.
The study reveals a continent-wide spread of hardline nationalist
sentiment among the young, mainly men. Deeply cynical about their own
governments and the EU, their generalised fear about the future is
focused on cultural identity, with immigration ? particularly a
perceived spread of Islamic influence ? a concern.
"We're at a crossroads in European history," said Emine Bozkurt, a
Dutch MEP who heads the anti-racism lobby at the European parliament.
"In five years' time we will either see an increase in the forces of
hatred and division in society, including ultra-nationalism,
xenophobia, Islamophobia and antisemitism, or we will be able to fight
this horrific tendency."
The report comes just over three months after Anders Breivik [http://
www.guardian.co.uk/world/anders-behring-breivik" title="], a supporter
of hard right groups, shot dead 69 people at youth camp near Oslo.
While he was disowned by the parties, police examination of his
contacts highlighted the Europe-wide online discussion of anti-
immigrant and nationalist ideas.
Data in the study was mainly collected in July and August, before the
worsening of the eurozone crisis. The report highlights the prevalence
of anti-immigrant feeling, especially suspicion of Muslims. "As
antisemitism was a unifying factor for far-right parties in the 1910s,
20s and 30s, Islamophobia has become the unifying factor in the early
decades of the 21st century," said Thomas Klau from the European
Council on Foreign Relations [http://ecfr.eu/content/profile/C23"
title="], who will speak at Monday's conference.
Parties touting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic ideas have spread
beyond established strongholds in France, Italy and Austria to the
traditionally liberal Netherlands and Scandinavia, and now have
significant parliamentary blocs in eight countries. Other nations have
seen the rise of nationalist street movements like the English Defence
League (EDL) [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/28/english-defence-
league-guardian-investigation" title="]. But, experts say, polling
booths and demos are only part of the picture: online, a new
generation is following these organisations and swapping ideas,
particularly through Facebook. For most parties the numbers online are
significantly bigger than their formal membership.
The phenomenon is sometimes difficult to pin down given the guises
under which such groups operate. At one end are parties like France's
National Front, a significant force in the country's politics for 25
years and seen as a realistic challenger in next year's presidential
election. At the other are semi-organised street movements like the
EDL, which struggles to muster more than a few hundred supporters for
occasional demonstrations, or France's Muslim-baiting Bloc
Indentitaire, best known for serving a pork-based "identity soup" to
homeless people [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4644766.stm"
title="">serving a pork-based "identity soup].
Others still take an almost pick-and-mix approach to ideology; a
number of the Scandinavian parties which have flourished in recent
years combine decidedly left-leaning views on welfare with vehement
opposition to all forms of multiculturalism.
Youth, Demos found, was a common factor. Facebook's own advertising
tool let Demos crunch data from almost 450,000 supporters of the 14
organisations. Almost two-thirds were aged under 30, against half of
Facebook users overall. Threequarters were male, and more likely than
average to be unemployed.
The separate anonymous surveys showed a repeated focus on immigration,
specifically a perceived threat from Muslim populations. This rose
with younger supporters, contrary to most previous surveys which found
greater opposition to immigration among older people. An open-ended
question about what first drew respondents to the parties saw Islam
and immigration listed far more often than economic worries. Answers
were sometimes crude ? "The foreigners are slowly suffocating our
lovely country. They have all these children and raise them so badly,"
went one from a supporter of the Danish People's Party. Others argued
that Islam is simply antithetical to a liberal democracy, a view
espoused most vocally by Geert Wilders, the Dutch leader of the Party
for Freedom, which only six years after it was founded is the third-
biggest force in the country's parliament.
This is a "key point" for the new populist-nationalists, said Matthew
Goodwin from Nottingham University [http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/
politics/staff/Matthew.Goodwin" title="], an expert on the far right.
"As an appeal to voters, it marks a very significant departure from
the old, toxic far-right like the BNP. What some parties are trying to
do is frame opposition to immigration in a way that is acceptable to
large numbers of people. Voters now are turned off by crude, blatant
racism ? we know that from a series of surveys and polls.
"[These groups are] saying to voters: it's not racist to oppose these
groups if you're doing it from the point of view of defending your
domestic traditions. This is the reason why people like Geert Wilders
have not only attracted a lot of support but have generated allies in
the mainstream political establishment and the media."
While the poll shows economics playing a minimal role, analysts
believe the eurozone crisis is likely to boost recruitment to anti-EU
populist parties which are keen to play up national divisions. "Why
do the Austrians, as well as the Germans or the Dutch, constantly have
to pay for the bottomless pit of the southern European countries?"
asked Heinz-Christian Strache, head of the Freedom Party of Austria,
once led by the late J?rg Haider. Such parties have well over doubled
their MPs around western Europe in a decade. "What we have seen over
the past five years is the emergence of parties in countries which
were traditionally seen as immune to the trend ? the Sweden Democrats,
the True Finns, the resurgence of support for the radical right in the
Netherlands, and our own experience with the EDL," said Goodwin.
The phenomenon was now far beyond a mere protest vote, he said, with
many supporters expressing worries about national identity thus far
largely ignored by mainstream parties.
Gavan Titley, an expert on the politics of racism in Europe and co-
author of the recent book The Crises of Multiculturalism, said these
mainstream politicians had another responsibility for the rise of the
new groups, by too readily adopting casual Islamophobia.
"The language and attitudes of many mainstream parties across Europe
during the 'war on terror', especially in its early years, laid the
groundwork for much of the language and justifications that these
groups are now using around the whole idea of defending liberal
values ? from gender to freedom of speech," he said.
"Racist strategies constantly adapt to political conditions, and seek
new sets of values, language and arguments to make claims to political
legitimacy. Over the past decade, Muslim populations around Europe,
whatever their backgrounds, have been represented as the enemy within
or at least as legitimately under suspicion. It is this very
mainstream political repertoire that newer movements have
appropriated."
Jamie Bartlett of Demos, the principal author of the report, said it
was vital to track the spread of such attitudes among the new
generation of online activists far more numerous than formal
membership of such parties. "There are hundreds of thousands of them
across Europe. They are disillusioned with mainstream politics and
European political institutions and worried about the erosion of their
cultural and national identity, and are turning to populist movements,
who they feel speak to these concerns.
"These activists are largely out of sight of mainstream politicians,
but they are motivated, active, and growing in size. Politicians
across the continent need to sit up, listen and respond."
Voting trends
As a political party, having tens of thousands of online supporters is
one thing but translating these into actual votes can be quite
another. However, the Demos survey found that 67% of the Facebook fans
of the nationalist-populist groups which put up candidates ? some are
street movements only ? said they had voted for them at the most
recent election.
Further analysis found that female supporters were more likely to turn
support into a vote, as were those who were employed.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2011
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