Flirting with fascism

Why Europe can’t shake its weakness for Nazism

by Peter Goodspeed

Like vermin in a time of pestilence, neo-Nazi groups appear to be enjoying a resurgence in a Europe plagued by increasing financial chaos and uncertainty. As Europe celebrated the 67th anniversary of V.E. Day and the defeat of Hitler’s Nazis this week, it also reeled in disbelief as an angry Greek electorate gave 7% of their votes to the neo-Nazi, anti-immigrant Golden Dawn party.

Boasting an “army of brave boys in black,” who strut the streets of rundown Greek neighbourhoods, flicking off Hitler-esque salutes and staging anti-immigration rallies around a swastika-like flag that is based on an ancient Greek decorative border called a meandros, Golden Dawn became the first far-right party to enter the Greek parliament since the collapse of a military dictatorship in 1974.

In an echo of Europe’s tortured past, Nazism, with its association with the Holocaust and horrors of the Second World War, not only survives, but in some instances is thriving.

In Greece, extremists have united the marginalized, the disenchanted and the disempowered with promises to turn the clock back to an idyllic “pure” past.

“Europe has seen a boost in right-wing extremism,” says Nora Langenbacher, head of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation’s, Combating Right-Wing Extremism project, in Berlin.

“Particularly in times of crisis, right-wing extremists and right-wing populists in many places are trying to use the fears of European citizens to promote their ‘cause’ by providing simple answers to complex social challenges.”

Neo-Nazis, almost by definition, are anti-democratic and confrontational. They seek to create a new world order based on extreme provocation and, in some cases, far-right terror. They dream of the day when society and the state will collapse and a “Fourth Reich” can be built on the rubble.

They advocate turning the clock back – ending the European Union and returning to nation states centred on ethnic or cultural “purity,” dropping out of NATO, and abandoning the global economic order.

A sub-culture that is frequently associated with skinheads and violent thugs, neo-Nazis wallow in shocking symbols of the past – swastikas, jackboots, stiff-armed salutes, racial violence, and genocidal threats made against Jews, blacks, Muslims and gays.

Neo-Nazis pop up everywhere, from anti-Roma attacks in the Czech Republic to violence at gay pride parades in Sweden; from punk bands with names like Angry Aryans or the SS Bootboys to soccer thugs who revel in Nazi regalia.

There is a complex subculture of websites, magazines, blogs, CDs, books, radio stations, clothing companies and music stores that promote neo-Nazi ideals on an international scale.

“The radical right subculture in Germany is seething,” says Britta Schellenberg, a research analyst at the University of Munich.

“After 1989 [the fall of East Germany], the number of radical-right offences and crimes of violence increased dramatically.”

Radical right-wing extremism remained dormant under communism, but it has come out of the shadows and flourishes in what used to be East Germany.

Germany boasts Europe’s largest and strongest extra-parliamentary neo-Nazi movement, with an estimated 50,000 active members.

 “Every day in the Federal Republic of Germany there are at least two or three violent attacks by radical-right wingers,” Ms. Schellenberg says.

But opinions once limited to Germany’s extreme far-right seem to be spreading into mainstream politics. A survey released last year by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a left-of-centre think tank linked to Germany’s opposition Social Democrats, claimed that 13% of Germans say they want a new “fuhrer” to lead the country and 14.9% agreed with the statement: “There is something special about Jews, something peculiar. They don’t really fit in with us.”

Neo-Nazis also continue to thrive around the world. In Russia, gangs like the White Wolves specialize in stabbing Central Asians; in Mongolia’s capital of Ulan Bator neo-Nazis frequent a club called Tsagaan Khass or the White Swastika; in India, Hitler memorabilia has become so popular one publisher claims to have sold more than 100,000 copies of Mein Kampf in the last decade.

Neo-Nazis have even surfaced in Israel. A gang of eight teenagers — Russian immigrants who had Jewish grandparents — were jailed in 2008 for assaulting religious Jews and desecrating synagogues with swastikas.

Most studies suggest neo-Nazis and far-right extremists are “angry white men” who share a distinct social profile. They are generally drawn from the working class, are poorly educated, gather information from xenophobic tabloid newspapers and are deeply pessimistic about their financial prospects.

Matthew Goodwin, a political scientist at the University of Nottingham, who has studied backers of the far-right British National Party, says supporters are “driven to the far-right by their dissatisfaction with existing political options: they are far more distrustful than other voters of national and local politicians.”

Jamie Bartlett, a researcher with the British think tank Demos, recently surveyed 13,000 Facebook supporters of populist far-right parties in Europe and concluded they are generally defined by their opposition to immigration and a concern for protecting national and European culture, especially against a perceived threat from Islam.

“Our results suggest there is a new generation of populists that are not the racist, xenophobic reactionaries they are sometimes portrayed as,” Mr. Bartlett says. “They are young, angry, and disillusioned with the current crop of automaton political elites, who they do not think are responding to the concerns and worries they face in their lives.

“The patronizing account of populists is that they are the ‘losers’ of economic liberalism, cornered animals lashing out at mainstream politicians by voting for a tub-thumping demagogue. This is wrong. They are not particularly more likely to be unemployed than the national average, according to our survey. Their worries about immigration are driven by the threat they believe it poses to national and cultural identity, rather than economic considerations.”

Far-right parties tend to lash out against immigrants, globalization, the EU and multiculturalism and, like the far-left, rail against liberal democracy, liberal capitalism and national political elites.

Liz Fekete, executive director of Britain’s Institute of Race Relations, warns of “a revitalized neo-Nazi and far right terrorist underground” across Europe.

“Today we are witnessing the resurgence of old hatreds, with the Roma, particularly in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, again scapegoated for the economic crisis."

“Another stain on Europe’s conscience is the constant barrage of attacks on ‘visible Islam’ — the promotion of enemy images of Muslims against the backdrop of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

But Mr. Goodwin suggests violent neo-Nazi parties are not enjoying a resurgence. Golden Dawn’s gains in Greece are “very much the exception.”

“Reports from Greece suggest that many voters were not aware of the party’s ideological program, and that these supporters tended to be young, working-class men aged 25-34 and who lack educational qualifications."

“But, that said, across Europe more sophisticated radical right-wing populist parties continue to rally significant and relatively durable bases of support, as witnessed most recently at elections in France and in polls in countries such as Austria, that suggest the far right is now the most popular force among 18-25 year olds.”

That growth is reflected in the success of far-right parties, which were formerly on the fringes but now command significant political weight in Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Latvia and Slovakia, as well as the European Parliament.

In some countries, they are the second or third largest party and are seen as essential to the survival of conservative coalition governments.

In Greece, Golden Dawn’s seizure of 21 seats in the 300 seat parliament, hasn’t been translated into political power. That hasn’t prevented Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos from talking about “cleaning up Athens” “taking the dirt [immigrants] out of the country” and calling for land mines to be placed along the border to stop illegal immigrants.

“The Europe of the nations returns,” he crowed on election night. “Greece is only the beginning.”