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<text> <title> The New Threat Of The Far Right in Europe </title> <article> <hdr> World Press Review, May 1992 Europe: The New Threat of the Far Right </hdr> <body> By Wojciech Pieciak. From the liberal weekly "Tygodnik Powszechny" of Krakow. Xenophobic appeals are winning over the disaffected In Vienna and Upper Austria, Jorg Haider, leader of the xenophobic Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), which is opposed to the influx of foreigners, achieves stunning results in elections to regional Landtags (legislatures). The ultra-nationalists Flemish Bloc demanding the removal of "foreigners" gains 12 percent of the votes in Belgian parliamentary elections. In Sweden, New Democracy, a right-wing populist party bandying about anti-immigration slogans, is elected to seats in Parliament for the first time. Radical right-wing populist parties have become the most serious threat to Western democracies. They have brought an element of unpredictability to the once-stable political scene. Political observers seem to agree that these groups from nearly all Europe cannot hastily be thrown into the same sack with regard to their programs, structures, and origins. But the situations in which the populists have come to the fore are similar. The French National Front (FN) of Jean-Marie Le Pen is probably the best known of all the right-wing populist organizations in Europe. In the 1970s, the FN was insignificant, but its popularity has grown since the Socialist Party took power in 1981. The FN once garnered the largest number of its votes in middle-class neighborhoods--an expression of protest against the policies of the Socialists. Since 1986, when Le Pen gained almost 10 percent of votes in Parliament, the FN's consistency has changed: The party sees great successes in working-class neighborhoods, which sows disillusionment among those most affected by unemployment and the difficult economic situation. Spectacular successes for the FN were Le Pen's showing in the presidential elections in 1988, close on the heels of Gaullist candidate Jacques Chirac; his 12 percent standing in elections for the European Parliament in 1985; and, above all, FN successes in two cities--in Dreux, where it got 61 percent of the vote and in Marseilles, with 47 percent. [In regional elections on March 22, the National Front drew 13.9 percent of the vote.] Le Pen calls for the expulsion of all foreigners from France. Recently, the front presented a 50-point plan to get rid of the "strangers." They are mainly Muslims and non-whites who live in cities such as Paris and Marseilles. Usually, their ghettos are areas of poverty and unemployment, creating conflict and prejudice on both sides. Austria's Haider did not appear out of the blue. This young, energetic, and, most of all, charismatic and persuasive politician took over the party in September, 1986. It seemed then that the FPO was about to completely disappear from the political scene. The party's popularity hovered around 1 percent. Haider wasted no time beginning an energetic propaganda campaign. He criticized the privileges of politicians and the bureaucracy. He involved emotions of national pride, referring not to Austrian heritage but rather to a German national tradition. He skillfully exploited a series of political scandals and put into question the honesty and credibility of the traditional political "professionals." In 1988, for the first time, the Freedom Party entered the state Landtag of Lower Austria. In 1989, it became the second- largest party in the Landtag of Carinthia, the state bordering Yugoslavia. In the next parliamentary elections, on October 7, 1990, the Freedom Party garnered nearly 17 percent of the votes, taking them at the expense of not only conservatives but also socialists. The October 1991, elections in the state of Upper Austria again were a disaster for the traditional parties: Haider increased the number of FPO representatives to the Landtag from three to 11. Finally, the great day dawned: November 1, 1991, elections to the City Council of Vienna. The FPO captured nearly one quarter of the seats, and the conservatives fell to third place. The success of the FPO has not only shattered the time- honored division of power but also destroyed the existing ideological order. A segment of the traditional socialist electorate voted for Haider. The Vienna districts dotted with communal housing projects and settled by the "reds" backed the FPO en masse. Polls indicated that voters going for Haider were mainly workers without much education. The problems of foreigners and refugees has played an increasing role in party rhetoric. Austrians fear a "foreign deluge," and Haider understands this. He says that he is not against foreigners: he "only" wants the foreigners to stay in their place--at home. Belgium is roughly divided into French-speaking Wallonia and Flemish-speaking Flanders. In Flanders, two regional organizations formed the Vlaams Blok, or Flemish Bloc. Flemish nationalism has fed on demands for a reduction in state participation in the economy. Antwerp, where the Flemish Bloc has gained nearly 20 percent of the vote, is the stronghold of the movement. The great day for the Flemish Bloc came last November, shortly after Haider's success in Vienna. The European press began then to write at length about the growing rightist tendencies that seemed to be speaking through the continent. The Flemish Bloc increased its numbers in the Belgian Parliament from two to 13 seats. Every fourth Flemish voter opted for the ultra-nationalists. In voting for the bloc (or for the Greens, who also entered Parliament), people expressed their dissatisfaction with the traditionalist parties. "A protest vote"--that is how observers viewed the bloc's success. What problems are Belgium's mainstream parties unable to solve? They are similar to those in Austria and France: persistent unemployment, a drop in the standard of living, a growing wave of refugees, especially Muslims, and problems with immigrants' integration. The Flemish Bloc has ready answers: The immigrants are to blame for everything: they commit the crimes and have to be gotten rid of. In Italy, the new star in the populist sky is the Lombard League. It emerged in the early 1980s on the initiative of Umberto Bossi, a medical student who represents the league in the Italian Senate. The Lombard League did not distinguish itself in any way from dozens of similar little parties in northern Italy until regional elections in 1990, when it came out with an aggressive slogan, "We will chase out the southerners!"--meaning Italians from the south of the country. The Lombard League became the second-strongest force in the local Parliament, receiving 19 percent of the votes and leaving the communists in the dust. But the 1990 elections were only a steppingstone in the league's career. At the end of 1990, public opinion polls gave it a 10-percent rate of approval throughout the country and as high as 38 percent in Lombardy. The league has become the fourth-largest party in Italy. Its story serves to back the arguments of those who claim that one cannot dump all populist movements into one basket. The league's aggression is directed--for the time being--against fellow Italians from Rome and Sicily. Its support comes from the affluent social strata: professionals, white-collar workers, students--circles that enjoy an assured income and chances for advancement, people with a higher education. Thus, the Lombard League undermines the definition of populism as a movement embracing only unskilled laborers and people with little education. In Sweden, despite steadily decreasing confidence in the government and traditional parties and growing dissatisfaction with the "socialist model," people seemed immune to the