Islamophobia and xenophobia are continuing their march in Europe after the Paris attacks. Especially in France, the far right are consolidating and expanding their gains. Reports say that after years of shouting from the sidelines of French politics, Marine Le Pen of the National Front is finally being listened to and is being taken seriously, so much that the idea of a Le Pen presidency in 2017, once regarded as a fantasy, is seen as a real possibility. The party is expected to take a major step toward legitimacy in regional elections early next month. “They (the National Front) are likely to be ruling at least two major regions of France,” said Jean-Yves Camus, an analyst with the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs. “That would be a huge event.”
In Germany, the Pergida movement -- the German acronym for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West – is again gaining popularity after rebuff from the public. The thousands of people who rally every Monday under the banner of the Pergida to express their rage against Muslims, migrants and now the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel are back are getting more vociferous.
In addition to the far right gaining more currency and acceptance, we are also witnessing the conservatives and the liberal shifting slightly, but noticeably, to the right. Since the Charlie Hebdo and the mass killings in Paris, the Socialist government of President François Hollande has adopted hawkish policies and is borrowing rhetoric from Le Pen’s speeches. Interestingly, leaders of the centre-right opposition have gone even further and are using even more harsh language.
The twin phenomena of terrorism and migration this year have given huge doses of oxygen to the far-right parties across Europe. Parties which have been languishing on the sidelines are entering the mainstream and their leaders are shouting: We told you and you didn’t listen to us. Anti-Muslim attacks are on the rise to such an extent that many Muslims in Europe, who are born and brought up there, are writing in the media about bitter experiences of the kind they had never witnessed before. Migrants are viewed with distrust and dislike. There is also a certain antipathy toward a European project that for decades has aimed to break down borders and promote continental cohesion. There is a tendency now to close the borders and take a relook at the so-called dangers of free movement of people across Europe.
We can witness these events across Europe only with a sense of déjà vu. After every major terrorist attack, there is a phenomenal increase in Isamophobia and xenophobia, which would gradually subside, only to rise again with another terrorist attack.
Islamophobia and xenophobia are continuing their march in Europe after the Paris attacks. Especially in France, the far right are consolidating and expanding their gains. Reports say that after years of shouting from the sidelines of French politics, Marine Le Pen of the National Front is finally being listened to and is being taken seriously, so much that the idea of a Le Pen presidency in 2017, once regarded as a fantasy, is seen as a real possibility. The party is expected to take a major step toward legitimacy in regional elections early next month. “They (the National Front) are likely to be ruling at least two major regions of France,” said Jean-Yves Camus, an analyst with the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs. “That would be a huge event.”
In Germany, the Pergida movement -- the German acronym for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West – is again gaining popularity after rebuff from the public. The thousands of people who rally every Monday under the banner of the Pergida to express their rage against Muslims, migrants and now the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel are back are getting more vociferous.
In addition to the far right gaining more currency and acceptance, we are also witnessing the conservatives and the liberal shifting slightly, but noticeably, to the right. Since the Charlie Hebdo and the mass killings in Paris, the Socialist government of President François Hollande has adopted hawkish policies and is borrowing rhetoric from Le Pen’s speeches. Interestingly, leaders of the centre-right opposition have gone even further and are using even more harsh language.
The twin phenomena of terrorism and migration this year have given huge doses of oxygen to the far-right parties across Europe. Parties which have been languishing on the sidelines are entering the mainstream and their leaders are shouting: We told you and you didn’t listen to us. Anti-Muslim attacks are on the rise to such an extent that many Muslims in Europe, who are born and brought up there, are writing in the media about bitter experiences of the kind they had never witnessed before. Migrants are viewed with distrust and dislike. There is also a certain antipathy toward a European project that for decades has aimed to break down borders and promote continental cohesion. There is a tendency now to close the borders and take a relook at the so-called dangers of free movement of people across Europe.
We can witness these events across Europe only with a sense of déjà vu. After every major terrorist attack, there is a phenomenal increase in Isamophobia and xenophobia, which would gradually subside, only to rise again with another terrorist attack.
