Politics and Policies of Integration in Austria, Hungary, Czechia, Denmark and at the Eu Level

POLITICS AND POLICIES OF INTEGRATION IN AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, CZECHIA, DENMARK AND AT THE EU LEVEL Radko Hokovský & Jiří Kopal (eds.) Publication of this monograph was made possible thanks to kind support by the Th ink Tank Fund of the Open Society Foundations. POLITICS AND POLICIES OF INTEGRATION IN AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, CZECHIA, DENMARK AND AT THE EU LEVEL Second printed edition 2013 Publisher: League of Human Rights & European Values Th ink-Tank Editors: Radko Hokovský & Jiří Kopal Foreword: Michael Emerson Design and typeset: Hana Hrdinová Proofreading: Ross Grainger League of Human Rights European Values Th ink-Tank Liga lidských práv Th ink-Tank Evropské hodnoty Burešova 6, 602 00 Brno Vltavská 12, 150 00 Praha 5 Czech Republic Czech Republic [email protected] [email protected] www.llp.cz www.evropskehodnoty.cz Copyright © League of Human Rights & European Values Th ink-Tank, Brno & Praha 2013 ISBN 978-80-87414-12-5 List of Content Foreword / Michael Emerson ........................................................................... 4 Part I Politics of Mainstream and Extremist Parties on Integration of Immigrants and Minorities Introduction / Radko Hokovský ....................................................................15 Austria / Fabio Wolkenstein ..........................................................................22 Hungary / Péter Krekó, Attila Juhász, András Zágoni-Bogsch ...................50 Czechia / Radko Hokovský, Jakub Janda ......................................................77 Denmark / Brian Arly Jacobsen ..................................................................103 EU Level / Radko Hokovský, Kamila Čermáková .....................................132 Hate Speech Limits / David Zahumenský ..................................................158 Part II Policies of Integration of Immigrants and Minorities Introduction / Jiří Kopal ..............................................................................179 Austria / Bernhard Perchinig .......................................................................192 Hungary / Péter Krekó, Attila Juhász, András Zágoni-Bogsch .................237 Czechia / Markéta Blažejovská ...................................................................260 Denmark / Shahamak Rezaei, Marco Goli.................................................309 EU Level / Jiří Kopal.................................................................................... 342 European Courts’ Case Law / Michaela Kopalová ....................................354 Recommendations / Radko Hokovský, Jiří Kopal .....................................392 About the authors .......................................................................................397 3 Foreword Michael Emerson Th is book studies the recent resurgence of extreme right political parties in Europe, and in particular their positioning in relation to issues of immigration and ethnic minorities, which are at the core of these parties’ ideologies and political agendas. Th e book falls into two parts, fi rst examining the role of extreme right parties in four countries, and secondly examining how policies for the integration of both old and new minorities have been developing in these countries. Th e approach has been to look at a sample of four of the smaller member states of the European Union: two of the new member states from Central Europe, the Czech Republic and Hungary, and two older member states, Austria and Denmark. Together their populations amount to only 35 million, or 6% of the EU total. But as manageable sample they can be considered signifi cant for European as a whole, given that they span old and new Europe. But what and who are the extreme right? One of the studies (by Kamila Čermáková and Radko Hokovský) identifi es three key features of far-right politics (1) populism, with anti-elite and anti-establishment positions, (2) authoritarianism, and (3) nativism, i.e. combining nationalism and xeno- phobia. Each of these elements can be a matter of degree and there are cer- tainly borderline cases where it is hard to say who is just to the right, rather than to the extreme right. Th e extreme right would be openly discrimina- 4 Foreword tory towards minority communities, either long-standing ones such as the Roma in central Europe, or more recent Muslim immigrant communities. Th e populist discourse of the extreme right uses emotional nationalist slogans to mobilise support, including insulting anti-semitic, anti-Muslim or anti-Roma references. Th e motivation of the study is of course the possible relevance of these political movements to the nightmare scenario of any resurrection of the political tragedies experienced in the living memories of today’s elderly Europeans: the rise to power of fascist, nationalist and racist movements in Germany and Italy in the 1930s, and the consequent second world war. Th e European Union stands as the bulwark to prevent anything like this ever happening again, and was for that reason in 2013 awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Th e mega question to be at least in the back of the mind while looking at these four case studies of the extreme right is therefore whether we are seeing a major revisionist challenge to Europe’s democratic values and code of human rights, or just a marginal shift to the right in the centre of political gravity in four small states. Th is mega question was already posed as Jorg Haider built up increas- ing support for the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) during the late 1980s and 1990s on the basis of an anti-immigrant, anti-establishment and eurosceptic agenda, which was fi tted together with an ambiguous interpretation of the Nazi past. FPO peaked in popularity when it won 26.9% of the vote in the 1999 parliamentary election, the second largest of all parties, which the leading party was then forced to accept in a coalition government in 2000. Th is prompted serious concern over the legal incapacity of the European Union to act to counter any of its member states becoming undemocratic. Accession candidates could be tested in advance of accession for their democratic credentials, but aft er accession there was nothing that could be done. And indeed two of the states here studied are from post-communist Central Europe, where their democracies might prove to be superfi cial and reversible. In fact there was a response to Jorg Haider, when the European Union included a ‘suspension clause’ in the Treaty Amsterdam signed in 1999 (Article 7), subsequently carried over into the Treaty of Lisbon, according to which a member state seriously breaching the EU’s democratic prin- 5 ciples could be deprived of their voting rights in the Council, a provision that has never so far been used. Th e extreme right political parties In this book a fi rst set of chapters looks at how selected political parties of the right or extreme right (as listed in Table 1) relate to traditional or mainstream parties. Table 1 Selected political parties of Austria, Denmark, Czech Republic and Hungary, and political group of the European Parliament Austria Freedom Party (FPO). Led by Jorg Haider from 1986 to 2005. Peak popularity of 26.9% of the vote in 1999. Czech Republic Sovereignty Party (Jana Bobosikova’s Bloc). Won 3.7% of the vote in 2010. Worker’s Party of Justice (DSSS). Won 1.1%b of the vote in 2010. Denmark Danish Peoples Party. Won 12.3% of the vote in 2011 elections. Hungary Fidesz. Currently the ruling party with a two-thirds parliamentary majority. Jobbik. Won 16.7% of the vote in 2010. European Parliament Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group. A mixed bag of right and extreme right parties and individuals, including the Danish Peoples Party and the UK Independence Party. Th e chapter on Austria by Fabio Wolkenstein explains that aft er the FPO’s entry into government coalition in 2000 its popularity faded, but has since 2006 has regained momentum, with the aid of crude and polarising slogans such as “Abendland in Christenhand” (the occident in the hands of Christians) and “Heimatliebe statt Marokkaner-Diebe” (love of the 6 Foreword homeland instead of Moroccan thieves). In the 2009 European elections the FPO adopted strongly Eurosceptic line, with slogans such as “asylum lunacy.” Th e party has surely infl uenced the national debate with the major parties now favouring stricter immigration and integration policies, but the contribution of FPO to this national trend is debatable. In discussing the strategies of the major mainstream parties, the author makes a central point for the whole of this book: that the extreme right have clearly suc- ceeded in pushing such a clear agenda that the major parties fi nd them- selves responding reactively to this, rather than taking the initiative with their own agendas. Hungary is arguably the country in which the extreme right have made major political advances, but as in the Czech Republic their main target are the Roma, since Muslim immigration has been minimal. Th e Jobbik party is uncontroversially of the extreme right, gaining parliamentary representation in 2010 with 16.7% of the votes, and with opinion polls suggesting further increases in their support. Th e author of this chapter, Attila Juhasz, describes Jobbik as follows: ‘refutes the liberal interpretation of human rights and remains ethnocentric, irredentist, homophobic and anti-semitic.’ Its anti-Roma stance has been highlighted by its stereotyping slogan about ‘gypsy crime,’ and has profoundly infl uenced wider public discourse about this community.

Load more