Discussion regarding the rise of far right parties in Europe

[Dystopia]

Far Right Nationalist parties are becoming increasingly popular in Europe - The result of the elections for the Euro parliament is a good example, with parties like the FN (National Front) in France gaining a significant amount of votes.

Not all countries in Europe are giving credit to these parties, since in some countries like Greece it's actually the far left that is gaining popularity and others like Portugal have only a small amount of votes in favour of nationalists

This new neo-nationalism has strong roots on old school European fascism but they disguise it using fancy words and expressions - They try to distinguish themselves from old fascism by making an appeal to democracy and democratic nationalism.

A lot of these parties have different things in common - For instance Le Penn in France is allegedly pro-gay marriage and pro-choice, basically using this position as a way to get votes from the left and assume a more open minded position regarding nationalism - Other nationalist parties are pro socialistic state intervention to help the poor (of course, as long as they are non immigrant nationalists), using this as a method to get votes from the left.

What these parties have in common is (exemplifying list):
- A worship for each of their nations
- Most of them are racist, although it's not publicly stated
- They are anti-immigration and think immigration is the world's greatest evil
- They are anti-gay marriage, anti-choice, anti-drugs and anti-trans
- They love tradition and everything that has their country's symbol in it
- They are against both socialism/communism and extreme capitalism (this creates a vote choice for many people)
- They are anti-EU
- They are often part of the European Arian brotherhood or whatever the hell it is
- Anti-Islam and other religions other than Christianity (not sure how they feel about atheism, no position has been taken yet)
- Pro mandatory military service for men
- Sometimes pro-death penalty
- They are ultra conservative and scientific evidence is irrelevant for them.

This thread is meant to discuss the rising popularity and credit given to these parties, and it's open to everyone European or not. I'd like to give credit to Abarus since it was a conversation with him/her that inspired me to create this thread given my concern over these parties.

So what do you think is the cause of the rising popularity of nationalists? And what will happen if they start becoming mainstream and win?

I think multiple causes exist, highlighting:
- Lack of satisfaction with centrist parties and the economical crisis
- Hate for politicians, mostly mainstream centrist ones because of reasons like incompetence and corruption
- The existence of old school fascists/nationalists or their kids who've been brought to the ideology
- Hatred towards the so called "modern trends" like gay marriage, drug liberalization/legalization and the repeal of harmful traditions
- Some people just love their country
- Overly liberalized open borders that lead to excessive immigrants entering European countries - While I don't agree with discrimination and persecution, even I admit that there are just too many immigrants freely entering and getting state assistance while there are more pressing concerns
- Hatred towards the EU

I think that out of all the reasons, anti-EU ideologies and dissatisfaction with the crisis are the most important, many people are tired of corrupt incompetent politicians and want stability - That doesn't mean they are making the right choice..

So what do you think? In case you are European and live in a country with a far-right party, you can tell us about it's ideologies and how many vote it has gathered.

[abaris]

Well, here in Austria it's of course the infamous FPOE, which means Freedom party of Austria. Right after the war, it was kind of the trashcan for former NSDAP members, but up to the late 80ies it never got more than 5 percents of the votes and it turned into kind of a liberal party (not in the American sense). Then Jörg Haider took over and from day one his goal was to be as populistic as possible. Immigration has always been an issue since then, as has been the supposed invasion by "African drug dealers". The Xenophobic and racist approach coupled with claiming to be the party for the ordinary disenfranchised people worked and netted an ever growing part of the electorate.

Fast forward to the year 2000. Of course, the Conservatives, who actually lost in the elections of 1999 and came in third, entered a coalition with the FPOE, since it granted them the chancellor. These 6 years are still keeping the courts in business, since Austria entered an age of government corruption that was unique in it's history.

Did the people learn from this? No, they didn't. Did the other parties learn from this? No, they didn't. Right now the FPOE stands at about 20 percent in the polls. They achieved that by of course riding outrageous attacks against immigrants and especially muslims, who they make responsible for every evil happening in Austria. And there's no counterweight. Not like for example in Germany, where the conservatives as well as the Social Democrats or the Green Party are vehemently against Xenophobia. The only good thing about Austrian politics right now is that the Green party also nets more and more votes with every election and they are the only ones taking a real stand against Xenophobic and Islamophobic tendencies.

[Dystopia]

How much are the abstention numbers? This is also relevant because too much abstention could lead to idealistic nationalists getting more votes.

Over here in Portugal there's no significant Muslim community, I think Muslims, for some reason, never got attracted to the so called "tail of Europe" - But there's a community of Africans from Mozambique and Angola, former portuguese colonies, and while the majority of the population is white, the percentage of black people, specially in populated cities like Lisbon is significant - The nationalist party, aka PNR (Partido nacional renovador - Reformist National Party) frequently blames blacks for the problems, as well as other immigrants portuguese people frequently receive like Ukranians and others from Eastern Europe or from Brazil, or gypsies. I have an Ukranian friend who's been here for like 6 years, she is a great student at university, she speaks portuguese better than a lot of rednecks you'll see wandering around and she knows our history and traditions well, even if she still loves Ukrain - in fact I'm betting that if a nationalist met her, they'd love her until she revealed she is not portuguese since it's not noticeable otherwise.

I don't think this party is Nazi, because Nazism includes the Arian race, and portuguese people generally don't match the requirements to be an Arian... I mean, we are a diverse group with origins from the Celtic to the Lusitanians, some of us are taller or smaller or whiter or darker, but we are generally what people describe as "white latino" since we are not as white as Germans, Brits or Scandinavians - So being a Nazi would mean being against your own ethnicity since we are not as white as the Arian ideal was supposed to be - Still, they discriminate against people who don't fit the ideal of portuguese white.

Another thing this parties have is that they want to change citizenship laws - There's basically 2 criteria:
- Ius sanguinis - If you are born from, let's say, French parents (example) you are French
- Ius solis - If you are born on French soil you are French
Most countries use both criteria to prevent people from lacking any nationality at all, but these parties defend that the only people with citizenship should be the ones who possess the right blood, basically the ones with roots on the country for centuries, anyone else who is an immigrant or has roots in other countries/continents, no matter how smart, or how competent, shouldn't have the right to apply for citizenship because they are not true "portuguese, french, italian..." They want to use the ius sanguinis criteria only.

[Dystopia]

Here's a video of the portuguese leader of our nationalist party about the supposedly dangerous Islamic invasion of Europe (translation to English included):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPBtnUJ031c


The use of sensationalism and populism is very strong.