Far-right cashing in on ‘perfect storm’
EXPERTS: ISLAMOPHOBIA WINNING VOTES IN EUROPE, US IN WAKE OF ATTACKS
The actions of terrorists in Europe and the US have ensured Islam is now at the receiving end of far-right politicians — and many voters will embrace their rhetoric when they go to the polls, experts on extremist politics have told Gulf News.
With Islamophobia growing in the wake of last month’s Paris attacks, which killed 130 and were claimed by Daesh, and the deadly California rampage by radicalised couple Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, politicians and parties have been chasing populist votes with anti-Muslim sentiments and policies.
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump may have been widely condemned for proposing to close America’s borders to Muslims, but his popularity has been unaffected and he enjoys a commanding lead in his party’s race to run for the White House.
And the far-right National Front (FN) won more votes than any other party in France’s regional elections last week as the nation went to the ballot boxes for the first time since the atrocities in the capital. Although Sunday’s run-off results were less impressive for Marine Le Pen due to the mainstream parties’ decision to work together, the fact that the FN won nearly 30 per cent of the vote in the first round shows the broadness of their appeal.
Matthew Feldman, professor in contemporary history at Teesside University and an expert on the far-right in Europe and the US, believes an antiMuslim agenda is likely to be a vote-winner in much of the Western world.
Making gains
“[Far-right parties] are trying to make those messages appeal to a front-stage audience. They are making real and genuine gains and we saw that with Le Pen last week. Someone has quite rightly termed that part of a ‘perfect storm’ as it was only a month after 130 people were butchered in Paris,” Feldman said.
“One of the things we are seeing is, for instance, the Donald Trump phenomenon. He is mainstreaming these ideas, making them not seem taboo anymore. It’s like giving licence to people — making it no longer beyond the pale to say ‘I want to stop all Muslim immigration completely’. I wonder if, before Donald Trump began running for president, one could express those kind of views and not have other people say ‘that’s racist’, whereas now it’s almost being passed off as common sense.”
Professor Matthew Goodwin, professor of politics at the University of Kent and fellow of international affairs at independent think tank Chatham House, believes the NF’s success follows a pattern for elections held soon after terrorist attacks.
He told Gulf News: “Certainly the regional elections in France would confirm what the research and social science suggests, which is that in the aftermath of attacks you tend to get an increase in support for the right-wing parties. We certainly see in France that Le Pen has clearly profited to some degree from the attacks.
“Also, not that it’s linked only to Paris, but if you look across Europe at the moment — for example at the Netherlands or Sweden or Austria — you can see anti-EU, anti-immigration parties either polling very well or even sitting quite comfortably in first place in the polls.”
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump may have been widely condemned for proposing to close America’s borders to Muslims, but his popularity has been unaffected.
Not unique
But Goodwin says it is not unique for European countries to see far-right parties playing a role in national level politics.
“It’s important to consider history,” he said. “We’ve already had many of these parties in coalition governments. In Austria, you’ve already had the Freedom Party in coalition, and in the Netherlands you’ve had [Party for Freedom leader] Geert Wilders polling national levels of support.
“So none of this is particularly new, the only question now is, ‘will they now begin to move into different groups in society?’. Will you begin to see them, for example, begin to mobilise support among younger voters, women voters, middle class voters — people who perhaps are worried about security, not just the single issue of immigration?
“There is a tendency to sensationalise and say that Europe is turning to the far right. Although I don’t think that’s the case, there is a varied response.”
If, over the coming months, more countries do find themselves voting far-right parties into positions of power, many
commentators fear that could play into the terrorists’ hands by isolating Muslim communities and making the recruitment of disillusioned individuals easier.
“I can see the arguments [that it would play into terrorists’ hands]. I can see that one of their goals would be to try and pry European citizens of the Muslim faith away from the community of which they are a part. And by creating suspicion that would do it,” said Feldman, who has worked with the British police on far-right terrorism and incitement.
“One thing I do know about Daesh’s narrative is that their apocalyptic prophecy is based on a ground war in Syria. So if there was a ground war in Syria, I could see that would absolutely act as a recruiting sergeant.”
The writer is a journalist based in London.