Radical Right Parties

There has been increase of support for radical right parties in Europe over the last 20 years. In the United Kingdom the radical right party United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) has gained support and in the 2015 general election gained the 12.6% of the vote, the third highest vote share. In France’s 2012 legislative election the radical right party Front National won 13.6% of the vote share, also the third highest vote share. In 2014 the election in Sweden with a proportional representation system, saw the Sweden Democrats, the far right party, win 49 seats out of 349, which was the third largest share. To explain the rise of the far right in these countries, this essay will argue that each country has unique conditions however they all
share common themes. In the United Kingdom, the economic crisis in other European Union countries such as Greece has worried the populace and a push for the UK to withdraw from the EU has been a focal issue for UKIP. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 in allied United States, and then again after the 7/7 in 2005 bombings in London, anti-immigration sentiment (particularly against those from the Middle East) has risen in fear of repeat attacks. In France, anti-immigration gives the strongest support to the Front National party. The concerns over safety since the Charlie Hebdo shootings and terrorism in the rest of the Western world combined with the frustration of the lack of immigrants integrating themselves with French culture sees this issue rise. In Sweden, the rise of the radical right is due to the idea of sharing the generous welfare state offered by Sweden with immigrants being unfavourable, and the increase of migrants from the Middle East due to the refugee crisis is threatening the ethnic homogeny.
Across Europe and particularly in the United Kingdom there is a growing Euroscepticism towards the EU. The right in the UK are very much anti-EU with the most popular radical party, UKIP, initially being a single-issue party on the UK’s EU membership. The results of the 2014 European Parliament elections show this with UKIP winning he highest amount of seats for a single party, 24 out of 73, beating out the Labour and Conservative parties. However UKIP failed to achieve the same success in the 2015 general election, only gaining 2 seats in Westminster despite the large vote share, which is likely because the European elections use a proportional representation electoral system rather than the first past the post system in the UK elections which makes it easier for small parties to win seats. The reasons the British people are supporting UKIP on the issue of EU membership have a lot to do with immigration, sovereignty, economics, and the fact that Britain is separate from Europe. Unlike Germany, France, or Italy, the UK does not share any land borders with mainland Europe and has an ‘island mentality’. The UK has better link with Commonwealth countries, and the United States than with Europe due to shared language and culture.

The 2008 Global Financial Crisis was the first economic crisis and recession to hit unified Europe, with members of the Eurozone facing the disadvantage of the single currency. Rising unemployment and high costs of living plagued the Eurozone, and the EU had to bail-out 5 member states (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Cyprus). This made many in the people of the UK rethink their EU membership, and UKIP took advantage of the situation and gained popularity on the EU issue. While the UK was affected by the 2008 GFC, the unemployment rate jumps from 5.7% in 2008 to 7.7% in 2009. This does explain why UKIP gained support in the 2009 European Parliamentary elections, beating out the ruling Labour party for 2nd place.

Anti-Immigration is the biggest reason for support of UKIP and the far right. UKIP is often views as xenophobic, racist, and “the British National Party in blazers”. In 2007 they called for a 5 year freeze on immigration into Britain and recommended stricter terms of acceptance into the UK, requiring a high level of education, fluency in English and prove financial independence. Nigel Farge, the leader of UKIP has insisted that immigration could not be controlled while Britain remains in the EU. When a large number Eastern European states became full members of the EU in 2004, there was a flood of migrants towards Britain taking advantage of the opportunity to work and live as EU citizens, a majority of them were Polish nationals. This has not been received well, and has increased the support of the far right. There had been reports of a spike in the crime rate or a spike in the unemployment rate but that did not actually happen. Regardless of what actually did happen, the public still believes that these migrants and leeching off benefits paid by the British people, or stealing jobs away from British nationals and those assumptions are feeding the far right. Other mainstream parties are not helping this issue, with Labour changing it’s stance on the issue since losing the 2010 election with Labour leader Ed Miliband claims that this is a class issue, and if not addressed can undermine wages for low-skilled workers.

The other source of anti-immigration is from Middle Eastern or North African migrants, particularly those who practise Islam. In 2001 the West’s view on Muslims changed irrevocably after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, and then again specifically in the UK after the attack on London on July 7 2005. Islamophobia sets in as fear escalates, and the fear turns into support for anti-immigration. The recent conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, from the Arab Spring of 2011 has lead to an increase of refugees, war has taken their homes and need a safe place to live. The current Syrian refugee crisis escalating in Europe has only seen more and more support for radical right wing parties throughout Europe in the polls. UKIP is rather Islamaphobic and even called for a ban of the religious headwear, the burqua in public places across Britain. The anti-immigration issue is where most support for UKIP stems from, and it’s the economic and security fear that is driving force for the support of the extreme right.

In France, the far right party, Front National is far more radical than UKIP, in the European parliament UKIP decided to not create a party with Front National as they considered them to be ‘too extreme’. In the 2014 European election, the Front National party made gains across France, taking 25 out of the 74 seats, which is the highest amount across all parties. France’s socialist Prime Minister called the victory "a shock, an earthquake that all responsible leaders must respond to.” This demonstrates the clear demand for the extreme right in France and how the attitude towards the extreme right has changed for the average French citizen. In the 2002 Presidential election, long time Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen made it to the second round, while he did not succeed in the second round of voting. The reason that is attributed towards his success in the first round was the fear campaign that used the recent 9/11 attacks. In the 2007 Presidential elections, there was no success for the party, in 2012 after Jean-Marie Le Pen stepped down as leader and his daughter Marine Le Pen ran for president. She polled better than her father 10 years prior, earning 17.9% of the vote in the first round. Her success can be attributed to a couple of things.

In 2008 the Global Financial Crisis sent Europe into turmoil. While France did not have to be bailed-out like their Spanish neighbours, unemployment rose from 8% in 2007 to 9.8% in 2012 to 10.8% in 2015. The radical right’s economic policies are appealing when many people are on welfare, the people who are still working and paying into the system fear that they might not get the benefits if so many people are already on it. These fears increase when immigration is factored into the equation. Support for the radical right increases with an economic crisis or an increase in immigration.

Unlike the UK, France did not experience that same level of migration when the EU expanded to Eastern Europe, but has received as many, perhaps more Muslim immigrants than the UK. Due to ongoing conflict in the Middle East, such as in Syria and Iraq, more Middle East refugees have been brought to Europe and there is a strong Islamophobic backlash in France. The current refugee crisis is seeing Syrian refugees attempting to cross the English Channel from the Northern French town of Nord-Pas-de-Calais into the UK. In this town, where unemployment is higher than the national average, support for the radical Front National party has risen to 37% in news polls. With the increase of migrants, and unemployment the people can link the two together. Many French believe that the new migrants are stealing jobs away from the French, as there is a correlation between rising unemployment and rising immigration. But correlation does not equal causation and the rising unemployment is caused by the fiscal crisis in Europe and rising immigration is caused by war. The French fear that their way of life will be changed by an ‘invasion’ of Muslims, as they do not see the migrants adapt to the French way of life. The radical right believe that by Muslims continue to partake in their customs, such as women wearing the hijab or niqab and eating halal and not integrating or assimilating to the French culture, that they are wanting to change France from a secular state to a Muslim state and introducing Sharia Law. The attack on the satire magazine, Charlie Hebdo in Paris on the 7th of January 2015 saw a backlash to the Muslim population, leaving many too afraid to attend vigils and take part of the Je Suis Charlie movement that spread all over the world. Le Pen had warned of Islamic extremist attacks on France in the past, and after the attacks her popularity soared and according to opinion polls, if an election were held in the few months after the attack, she would have won. This is the primary reason for the rise of the radical right in France.

Sweden is a predominantly left wing, socialist state with a generous welfare state and well known for it. Unlike in the United Kingdom and France, Sweden prides itself on being open and tolerant which stops the radical right wing party, Sweden Democrats, from making the massive gains seen the other countries. In the 2014 elections, the Sweden Democrats won 13% of the vote, and unlike in the UK general elections and the French elections, won 13% percent of the seats in the Riksdag. The far right in the Nordic countries took beating after a white-supremacist murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011, but now the Swedish people see immigration as an important issue that needs attention that the mainstream parties do not currently give it. The radical right in Sweden deviates from the right wing norm of neo-liberalism, as the Sweden Democrats are not against the wealth distribution or the welfare state. Actually, the radical right want to preserve the welfare state for future generations by changing who has access to it. Sweden Democrats want to limit welfare to only provide it for citizens, and possibly only ethnic nationals.

Unlike most far right parties in Europe, the Sweden Democrats are not very Eurosceptic, and mostly campaigned for the 2014 election on immigration and multiculturalism. The target voter for the Sweden Democrats is the everyday citizen, someone who worries about the future for their family. Support is highest for these parties in poorer areas or areas with a high amount of immigration, as seen in Nord-Pas-de-Calais in France, or areas close to high immigration. While most Swedes are open and tolerant, the rise in the radical right shows that to some level, the people of Sweden prefer an ethnic homogeneity to entrenched multiculturalism. In Stockholm in 2013, riots started after the police shot and killed an elderly Portuguese immigrant. The riots expressed how youth felt about being targeted because they or their parents were immigrants and the high unemployment. The Sweden Democrats capitalised on the riots, claiming that the mainstream parties were too lax on immigration policies. They called for a curfew to suppress the riots, which finally ended after a week. The riots saw the party’s popularity rise in the polls to the third most popular party in Sweden.

The recent refugee crisis, with Syrian refugee’s attempting to get from Turkey to Europe, has seen the radical right gain popularity across Europe.
Sweden is no exception, however Sweden is one of the very few countries that actually are taking large numbers of refugees. Sweden is expected to take 180,000 asylum seekers in 2015, over twice the amount of the year before. The Sweden Democrats have surged in the polls, as they have been opposed to the influx of refugees. According to one opinion poll the party has 25% support, which is more than any other party. As the party most appeals to the everyday voters, the rise in support is due to the fact that poorer areas are disproportionally affected compared to richer areas. Some wealthy cities might only have 1 refugee per 1000 residents while in poorer areas the figure is around 100 refugees per 1000 residents. The sudden influx in refugees has lead to the rise of the Sweden Democrats, which is a shock for the left wing, socialist
country. In conclusion, the rise of the radical right in the United Kingdom, France, and Sweden is due to Euroscepticism and anti-EU sentiment steaming from the economic turmoil that other EU members (Greece and Spain in particular) are facing, large amounts of immigration and unemployment in low skilled industries, and an increase in immigration from the Middle East and Islamic extremist attacks on the West.
In the UK, the want to leave the EU for fear of economic crisis from being a member of the EU and the increase in Eastern European migrants which appear to be ‘stealing jobs’ from British nationals have seen the surge of the UK Independence Party. Other fears rising from the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks are a factor for this party’s success. In France, the correlation between spiralling unemployment and an increase of immigration fuels the radical right wing party Front National. Adding in the increase of Muslim migrants, which voters see as a threat to French culture and to their safety, after terror attacks on the West and in Paris itself. In Sweden the support for the Sweden Democrats is not as strong as it is in the UK and France, but with the Stockholm riots and terror attacks, immigrants are given a bad image and with a large influx of Syrian refugees the support for the party has
grown.