Overview of Far-Right Politics in Europe
AustriaPopulation: 8 million
Main far-right party: Freedom Party led by Jörg Haider
Percentage of vote: 27% in 1999 parliamentary elections (2nd overall)
National governmental status: Equal partner in national governing coalition, with half of all cabinet ministries
Racial attitudes: 50% of Austrians believe that Jews are responsible for their own persecution · 37% said they were "not sure" they could shake hands with a Jew and 6% said "it would make them physically unwell"1 · 15% of Austrians find the presence of people of another nationality disturbing.2
Source: survey in Gor, Austrian newsweekly, cited in Searchlight, 12/99
Source: Eurobarometer
Belgium
Population: 10.2 million
Main far-right party: Vlaams Blok
(Flemish Bloc) led by Filip Dewinter
Percentage of vote: 15% nationwide in 1999 European Parliament elections; 33% in Antwerp (1st among all parties) in 2000 local and regional elections, with 20 of 55 seats on Antwerp’s municipal council
National governmental status: Opposition
Racial attitudes: 20% of Belgians find the presence of people of another nationality disturbing1
1. Source: Eurobarometer
Denmark
Population: 5.3 million
Main far-right party: Danish People’s Party led by Pia Kjaersgaard
Percentage of vote: 7% in 1998 parliamentary elections
National governmental status: Opposition
Racial attitudes: 16% of Danes find the presence
of people of another nationality disturbing1
1. Source: Eurobarometer
France
Population: 60 million
Main far-right party: National Front (Front National) led by Jean-Marie Le Pen
Percentage of vote: 6% nationwide in 1999 European Parliament elections; averaged 7% in 2001 municipal elections (over 5% in 131 towns)
Other far-right parties: National Republican Movement led by Bruno Megret, with 3% nationwide in 1999 European Parliament elections; also averaged 3% in 2001 municipal elections (over 5% in 151 towns; once the 5% threshold is reached in most western European countries, a party typically receives representation and some government funding)
National governmental status: Opposition
Racial attitudes: 16% of French find the presence of people of another nationality disturbing1 · 27% of French said there were too many black people in France · 56% of French said there were too many Arabs in France
1. Source: Eurobarometer
Great Britain
Population: 60 million
Main far-right party: British National Party (BNP) led by Nick Griffin
Percentage of vote: Negligible in June 2001 parliamentary elections, but scored over 5% in five towns
National governmental status: Opposition
Racial attitudes:17% of Britons find the presence of people of another nationality disturbing1 · Great Britain is the most hostile country in Europe towards asylum-seekers, according to the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. · More than one in five Britons supports the expulsion of immigrants. · Only four out of 10 people in Great Britain agree with the view that people from minority groups enrich cultural life (the European Union average is one in two).
1. Source: Eurobarometer
Germany
Population: 82 million
Main far-right parties: Republikaner (REP) led by Rolf Schlierer (23,000 members). · German People’s Party (DVU) led by Gerhard Frey polled 13% in Saxony-Anhalt (east German state) in 1998 state elections. · National Democratic Party (NPD) led by Udo Voigt (7,000 members)
Percentage of vote: These three parties, plus 3 smaller extreme-right parties, polled a combined 4.6% (2,280,219 votes) in 1998 parliamentary elections1
National governmental status: Opposition
Racial attitudes: Survey of 14- to 25-year-olds shows 50% of eastern Germans and 35% of western Germans believe Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship had its good side.2 · Survey of 14- to 25-year-olds shows 46% of eastern Germans and 40% of western Germans believe there are too many foreigners in Germany.2 · 38% of Germans find the presence of people of another nationality disturbing.3
Miscellaneous: More than 50,000 extreme-right activists nationwide, 75 extreme-right organizations
Source: searchlight 11/98
Forsa Institute
Eurobarometer
Hungary
Population: 10 million
Main far-right party: Hungarian Justice and Life Party led by Istvan Csurka
Percentage of vote: 5% in 1998 parliamentary elections (3rd overall)
National governmental status: Not part of the national coalition but supports the center-right government; 12 (out of 386) parliamentary representatives
Racial attitudes: The Roma minority in Hungary suffer discrimination, particularly in the areas of education, employment, housing, and access to public establishments, according to Human Rights Watch. · 76% of Hungarians think that "it is the Roma’s own fault that they are poor" and 70% of Hungarians say that the increasing Roma population is "a threat to the security of society.". · A 1995 survey found that 25% of the Hungarian population is anti-Semitic.1
1. Source: Hebrew University of Jerusalem study
Italy
Population: 58 million
Main far-right party: National Alliance led by Gianfranco Fini
Percentage of vote: 12% in 2001 parliamentary elections
National governmental status: Junior partner in national governing coalition; four cabinet ministries; Fini is deputy prime minister
Other far-right parties: Northern League led by Umberto Bossi, with 4% in 2001 parliamentary elections; national coalition partner with three cabinet ministries
Racial attitudes: 11% of Italians find the presence of people of another nationality disturbing.1 · "In comparison to other Europeans, Italians express less support for the cultural assimilation of minority groups."1
1. Source: Eurobarometer
Norway
Population: 4.4 million
Main far-right party: Progress Party led by Carl Hagen
Percentage of vote: 17% in 1997 parliamentary elections (2nd overall)
National governmental status: Opposition
Racial attitudes: The Institution Against Public Discrimination says that hostility against immigrants is widespread, police harassment is rampant and racial discrimination in the housing and labor markets is widespread. Discriminatory statements such as "foreigners unwanted" and "whites only" are legal in accommodation advertisements
Russia
Population: 145 million
Main far-right party: Liberal Democratic Party led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Percentage of vote: 6% in 1999 parliamentary elections
National governmental status: Supports President Vladimir Putin
Racial attitudes: More than four in 10 Russians embrace a wide range of stereotypes about Jews. · 38% agreed that "Jews, more than others, are ready to use unscrupulous means to achieve their aims." · Chechens, Azeris and other dark-skinned peoples from the Caucasus are systematically abused by Russian police, according to Human Rights Watch, which has documented rampant police brutality including torture and murder.
Miscellaneous: There are at least 10 ultranationalist groups in Russia with memberships of between 100 and 5,000 people each. · There are 37 ultranationalist publications that have a circulation of between a few thousand and 100,000. · Radical nationalist groups operate openly in more than half of Russia’s 89 regions
Poland
Population: 39 million
Far-right parties: Several small extreme-right organizations and extra-parliamentary groups exist in Poland, including the National Right and the National Christian Union, both of which managed to infiltrate the mainstream right by joining the Patriotic Camp, a coalition of center-right parties that now governs Poland. National Right leader Krzysztof Kawecki is currently Deputy Minister of Education, while Marek Biernacki, who also has ties to the National Right, is Poland’s Minister of Internal Affairs
Percentage of vote: Negligible
Racial attitudes: A 1997 poll by the government found that nearly 25% of Poles surveyed were strongly anti-Semitic.1
Miscellaneous: Radio Maryja, backed by the Polish Catholic Church, regularly broadcasts anti-Jewish diatribes. · Lech Walesa, former leader of the anti-Communist Solidarity trade union movement, invoked anti-Jewish stereotypes while campaigning for the Polish presidency in the 1990s.
Source: Institute for Jewish Policy Research, American Jewish Committee
Slovakia
Population: 5.4 million
Main far-right party: Slovak National Party ledby Anna Malikova
Percentage of vote: 9% in 1998 parliamentary elections
National governmental status: Opposition, formerly a junior partner in governing coalition
Racial attitudes: Widespread prejudice against the Roma, who were described by former Slovak Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar as "socially and mentally ill citizens." · 60% say refugees carry diseases and 51% say they should be sent back to their own countries.1 · Nationalist parties in Slovakia have tried to rehabilitate the reputation of wartime fascist puppet leader Josef Tiso.
1. Source: Focus Agency poll
Sweden
Population: 9 million
Main far-right party: Sweden Democrats led by Mikael Jansson
Percentage of vote: Polled 20,000 votes in 1998 national elections, becoming the third largest party outside of parliament
National governmental status: Opposition
Racial attitudes: 10% of the Swedish population harbors very racist ideas and attitudes, according to a May 1997 survey by Stockholm University’s Center for Research in International Migration and Ethnic Relations (CEIFO). · 11% of Swedes find the presence of people of another nationality disturbing.1 · A CEIFO survey of young people, aged 11-19, found that only 66% were "completely certain that the Holocaust happened." 12% agreed that "Jews have too much influence in the world today."
Miscellaneous: Seeking to foment a race war, members of Vitt Ariskt Motstand (White Aryan Resistance) have robbed banks and mounted a spate of terrorist attacks. · Swedish neo-Nazis linked to the German-based Blut und Ehre (Blood and Honor) group have been charged with the murders of two police officers.
1. Source: eurobarometer
Switzerland
Population: 7.1 million
Main far-right party: Swiss People’s Party led by Christoph Blocher
Percentage of vote: 23% in 1999 parliamentary elections (1st overall)
National governmental status: Opposition
Racial attitudes: A report by the Swiss section of the Society for Threatened People, cited in a June 18, 2001, Swiss Radio International broadcast, showed that the Swiss are more accepting of right-wing extremist views and are "becoming more open about airing right-wing views in public."
Turkey
Population: 65 million
Main far-right party: National Action Party led by Devlet Bahceli
Percentage of vote: 18% in 1999 parliamentary elections (2nd overall)
National governmental status: Junior coalition partner; Bahceli is deputy prime minister
Racial attitudes: Ethnic Kurds are arrested and tortured by Turkish security forces on a regular basis, according to human rights monitors. · The European Union has called for the abolition of the death penalty in Turkey, an end to widespread torture, the lifting of constitutional curbs on free expression, and the granting of full cultural rights to the country’s Kurdish minority — including the right to educate and broadcast in their
mother tongue.Miscellaneous: National Action Party is the parent organization of the Grey Wolves, a neo-fascist terrorist youth group. · Ultra-right-wing death squads linked to government security forces were responsible for 14,000 disappearances and extra-judicial murders during the Turkish government’s"dirty war" against the Kurds in the
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