ROBERT WISTRICH
13
eral politics of the radical right. Disaffection with established parties and
elected politicians is rife, calling into question the liberal democratic
consensus and encouraging a powerful challenge from those national–
populist movements which voice the discontent from below. The Front
National ofJean-Marie Le Pen in France, the Republikaner in Germany,
the increasingly successful Freedom Party in Austria under the photogenic
Jorg Haider, the Lombard League and the neo-fascists in the Italian gov–
ernment, and the Vlaams B10k in Belgium all express in their different
ways the present crisis of confidence. While in Russia, the ultra-national–
ism of Vladimir Zhirinovsky casts a huge shadow over that country's fu–
ture.
The most visible target of the new populist politics has been the in–
flux of immigrants and asylum-seekers from the Third World, or more
recently from Eastern and Southeast Europe, into the European com–
munity. Almost every Western industrial society in the past two decades
has to some extent become multi-ethnic, with significant minority com–
munities in most of its major cities. This has exacerbated fears and anxi–
eties about law and order, jobs, housing and education, not to mention
the more irrational reflexes aroused by differences of culture, religion and
race.
In
France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Austria, Belgium, and parts of
East Europe, it has led to a resurgence of radically motivated violence
and resentment against the very existence of a multi-ethnic society.
Opinion polls over the past few years across the European continent
consistently show high levels of prejudice towards immigrants, foreign
workers, asylum-seekers, refugees, and Gypsies.
In
France, the main targets
are Arabs from the Maghreb and to a lesser extent Africans; in Germany
they are Turks; in Britain, Asians (especially Pakistanis), and Afro–
Caribbean people; in Italy they are primarily Africans; in Austria they
tend to be Slavs; and in Eastern Europe, Gypsies are a specially favored
scapegoat. Alongside this general xenophobia there is also some anti–
Semitism - less intense than it used to be in the prewar period - but still
ideologically central to the agenda of the far right.
The new populism and its leaders (most of them fairly articulate and
intent on maintaining a respectable fac;:ade) abide by the democratic rules
of the game in playing to the xenophobic gallery. Their slogans of
"Germany for the Germans," "France for the French," "Austria for the
Austrians" or "Russia for the Russians" offer simplistic, reassuring answers
for these beleaguered citizens who feci abandoned, lost or betrayed by
the established parties; and for all those who feel angry at the influx of
foreigners which has changed the character of their local habitat.
Sometimes, as in Italy, it is not so much against foreigners but fellow
citizens - in this case Southern Italians - that the xenophobic stereotypes
are directed. The more prosperous Italians of the North, disgusted by the
