Displaying items by tag: far right politics

After the Second World War many said, ‘Never again’. For decades extreme nationalism was considered a threat. In 2019 it has re-emerged with European far-right parties forming a new alliance led by US strategist Steve Bannon, wanting to ‘promote’ right-wing populist groups in Europe. Matteo Salvini, Italy’s leader of the extremist League party, has joined ‘The Movement’ and has gathered right-wing Netherlands Party for Freedom, Germany’s AfD, Danish People's Party, the Finns Party and other extremist populist parties to form a new alliance, injecting their rhetoric into the EU; selling themselves as ‘maintaining or protecting their heritage and their people (they warn that refugees, Muslims, empowered women, and the EU bring unwanted change, which is a bad thing). A YouGov survey for voting intentions shows that the European parliament will be significantly different after 25 May with 35% of seats taken by socialists, Greens, the European People’s Party, and other anti-European parties. See

The commanding victory of populist parties in the national election will reverberate beyond Austria. Sebastian Kurz, when foreign minister, closed routes through the Balkans for immigrants, and his party spearheaded laws banning full-face Muslim veils in public spaces. His political rise follows the far right gaining influence in Germany last month. Nationalist and anti-immigrant forces across the EU are feeling emboldened by the vote, which could bring the Islamophobic Freedom Party to power in a coalition government in Vienna. The People's Party want to fine migrants who refuse to attend integration and language classes, but the Freedom Party calls for dropping such classes completely. It has also pledged to deny migrants access to welfare payments altogether. If the two parties became coalition partners, Austrian politics would take a seismic shift to the right.