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Views on the Eurozone crises, immigration, and Islam are all topics that have bolstered the far-right parties’ movements and ideas throughout Europe. Last year, Geert Wilders, a well-known politician in the Netherlands who holds toxic and virulent views towards Islam, has won 15% of Dutch votes. His intentions, according to the Guardian, are clear:
Wilders wants the European parliament abolished, Bulgaria and Romania kicked out of the EU, the mass deportation of immigrants from the Netherlands, and a minimum say for Brussels over Dutch policy.
His ideas are not unique. They are also consistent with the views held by the Lega Nord (Northern League) in Italy. According to the Economist:
the League’s anti-illegal immigration and anti-Islamic stance is popular. It is a Leaguer, the interior minister, Roberto Maroni, who has implemented Italy’s controversial policy of turning back migrants in the Mediterranean before they can apply for asylum. Islamophobia is rife in the League. Another minister, Roberto Calderoli, once walked a pig over land earmarked for the building of a mosque.
Yet the party’s xenophobia is in essence a by-product of Mr Bossi’s efforts to create a shared identity among the people he seeks to unite. “One way he does this is by setting up common enemies,” says Alessandro Trocino, co-author of a recent book on the League. “First, it was Italians from the south; then immigrants in general, now Muslims in particular.”
Marie La Pen, a far right leader in France, is not surprisingly also involved in the business of building political capital off of immigration issues and local resentment. Earlier this year, she visited Lampedusa to share her concerns regarding the influx of immigrants from North Africa. Pen echoed the sentiments of Lega Nord, in a manner that indicated she was attempting to build political unity in Europe over the issue of immigration, even as the European Union is faltering. A short video of her escapade in Lampedusa can be seen here:
In further analyzing these issues, an article entitled, “Europe’s next nightmare,” by Dani Rodrick for Al-Jazeera, discusses the increase of nationalism and xenophobia amongst far right parties as a result of the economic crises currently plaguing Europe. Excerpts are below:
As if the economic ramifications of a full-blown Greek default were not terrifying enough, the political consequences could be far worse. A chaotic eurozone breakup would cause irreparable damage to the European integration project, the central pillar of Europe’s political stability since World War II. It would destabilise not only the highly indebted European periphery, but also core countries such as France and Germany, which have been the architects of the project.
The nightmare scenario would also be a 1930s-style victory for political extremism. Fascism, Nazism, and communism were children of a backlash against globalisation that had been building since the end of the nineteenth century, feeding on the anxieties of groups that felt disenfranchised and threatened by expanding market forces and cosmopolitan elites…
As my Harvard colleague Jeff Frieden has written, this paved the path for two distinct forms of extremism. Faced with the choice between equity and economic integration, communists chose radical social reform and economic self-sufficiency. Faced with the choice between national assertion and globalism, fascists, Nazis, and nationalists chose nation-building…
Political movements of the extreme right have traditionally fed on anti-immigration sentiment. But the Greek, Irish, Portuguese and other bailouts, together with the euro’s troubles, have given them fresh ammunition. Their Euro-scepticism certainly appears to be vindicated by events. When Marine Le Pen was recently asked if she would unilaterally withdraw from the euro, she replied confidently: “When I am president, in a few months’ time, the eurozone probably won’t exist.”…
“Geert Wilders…holds toxic and virulent views towards Islam…”
That’s a good unbiased lead-in to your article.
“His intentions, according to the Guardian, are clear:”
The intentions of the toxic and virulent Guardian are always clear!
“…the mass deportation of immigrants from the Netherlands…”
Yes, Ian Traynor said that for the Garudian, but did Wilders say it?
Could someone indicate where that EXACT quote comes from?
There appears to be one 8:50min YouTube video used by everyone, which has been removed.
The text with that video stated: “…Wilders has said in an interview on Danish public service television that millions of European Muslims should be deported and stripped of their nationality.”
His comments on Dutch moslems were predicated on crime or preaching violence or ‘laziness’.
And remember his words do not arise in a vacuum, they follow the brutal murder of Theo van Gogh, who spoke about the dangers of Islam to Dutch civic culture.warned of homophobia, antisemitism and suppression of women. He was killed in 2004 by a Dutch Muslim who shot him, tried to cut off his head and attached a note to his body with a knife.
But I understand, this is not news, it is opinion, or reflections:
“Reflections on the migration across the mediterranean”
Thanks for the comment. Allow me to respond. Tim, to begin with, Geert Wilders, who by the way is known for his virulent views on Islam which is also the reason for his grand popularity amongst right wing nationalists from around the world, is a politician. I know the interview which you are referring to. When he spoke of Muslims, he was only speaking of them as being in a temporal, peaceful state; however, he wishes, it seems, to deport them because he fears, from his own stupidity, that the vast majority will commit crimes, sooner or later. It is obvious he is only keeping an eye on them, making them feel like the suspicious ones, forcing them to accept his worldviews. Wilders even says if you think of “jihad or sharia” then you will be sent “packing”, but excuse me, since when was thinking a crime? How could you enforce this? He is basing his deportation on idiotic methods, and t is clear he is trying to find some way to deport only Muslims. It is clear Wilders does not like Islam, which is a euphemism for Muslims in his private quarters! And judging by your e-mail address, you seem to be in the same bandwagon as him.
You speak of Mohammed Bouyeri, the Morrocan man who killed Theo Van Gogh. It’s very unnecessary to murder a man who created an anti-Islamic film, but the Muslim world, or even their faith,cannot be held responsible for the actions of lunatics. In fact, when Wilders created the film, Fitna, where were the burnt embassies? the torched cars? the dead nuns? Nothing happened, despite how much Wilders pathetically tried. Wilders is only building further political capital with the murder of Theo Van Gogh, by suggesting to the public: “You see! Look at the Muslim menace! Elect me, I will watch them and deport them at any sign of alarm!”
Is Wilders really the solution to this problem if his mentality is my way or the high way?
I would like to also mention, Wilders was not the only one I discussed in my post, there were other individuals as well, but it seems you glorify Wilders to the point where you would defend his archaic views.
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