RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM in EUROPE Country Analyses, Counter-Strategies and Labor-Market Oriented Exit Strategies
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Ralf Melzer, Sebastian Serafi n (Eds.) RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM IN EUROPE Country Analyses, Counter-Strategies and Labor-Market Oriented Exit Strategies FES GEGEN RECHTS EXTREMISMUS Forum Berlin RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM IN EUROPE I II RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM IN EUROPE RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM IN EUROPE Country Analyses, Counter-Strategies and Labor-Market Oriented Exit Strategies Imprint ISBN: 978-3-86498-522-5 Edited for: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (Friedrich Ebert Foundation) by Ralf Melzer and Sebastian Serafi n Forum Berlin/Politischer Dialog “Project on Combatting Right-Wing Extremism” Hiroshimastraße 17, 10785 Berlin Proofreading: Sandra Hinchman, Lewis Hinchman Translations: zappmedia GmbH, Berlin Photos: see page 464 Design: Pellens Kommunikationsdesign GmbH, Bonn Printing: Druck- und Verlagshaus Zarbock GmbH & Co. KG Sontraer Straße 6, 60386 Frankfurt am Main Copyright 2013 by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Projekt „Gegen Rechtsextremismus“, Forum Berlin Editors’ notes: The spelling, grammar, and other linguistic conventions in this volume refl ect American English usage. The judgments and opinions expressed in the articles collected for this book are those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation or of the editors. In order to preserve the uniqueness and individuality of the contributions to this anthology, the editors have decided to retain divergent citation styles. This anthology was compiled as part of a project entitled “Confronting right-wing extremism by developing networks of exit-oriented assistance.” That project, in turn, is integral to the XENOS special program known as “exit to enter” which has received grants from both the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the European Social Fund. Table of contents Editors’ Preface Ralf Melzer | Sebastian Serafi n ............................................................................. 5 1. Taking stock Michael Minkenberg The European Radical Right and Xenophobia in West and East: Trends, Patterns and Challenges ................................ 9 Country Analyses Germany | Britta Schellenberg ...............................................................35 Greece | Vassiliki Georgiadou .................................................................75 Italy | Roberto Chiarini .........................................................................103 Portugal | Riccardo Marchi .................................................................. 133 Poland | Rafał Pankowski, Marcin Kornak ............................................ 157 Romania | Radu Cinpoeş ..................................................................... 169 Ukraine | Mridula Ghosh ..................................................................... 199 Hungary | András Bíró Nagy, Tamás Boros, Zoltán Vasali ...................... 229 2. Strategies against right-wing extremism Gideon Botsch | Christoph Kopke | Fabian Virchow Banning Extreme Right-Wing Associations in the Federal Republic of Germany .......................................................... 255 Brigitte Bailer The “Ban on Re-Engagement in National Socialist Activity”, as a Social and Political Counter-strategy in Austria ........................ 281 RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM IN EUROPE 3 Petra Boumaiza Labor-Market Oriented Exit-Support Work to Combat Right-Wing Extremism: the XENOS special program, “Exit to Enter” (Ausstieg zum Einstieg) ...........................................307 Katrine Fangen | Yngve Carlsson Right-Wing Extremism in Norway: Prevention and Intervention ........................................................... 327 3. Prospects for fi ghting right-wing extremism at the European level Martin Schulz A Diversifi ed Europe United against Right-wing Extremism and Right-Wing Populism ................................................................359 Harald Weilnböck The Narrative Principle: Good Practice in Anti-Hate Crime Interventions, within the Radicalisation Awareness Network ......... 379 Kristina Nauditt | Gerd Wermerskirch Lessons Learned: Can Germany’s “labor-market oriented exit initiative” be adapted for other countries? .............................. 409 Appendices: About the authors .......................................................................................... 427 Selected literature and links ............................................................................. 439 Photo proofs ....................................................................................................444 4 RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM IN EUROPE Editors’ Preface Right-wing extremism is a problem with pan-European dimensions. In 2011, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (Friedrich Ebert Foundation) released a study that compared group-focused enmities in eight European coun- tries. The study revealed that approximately half of all respondents thought that their countries had too many immigrants. About a third believed in the existence of a natural hierarchy among differing ethnic groups. In the sample from Poland, statements conveying secondary anti-Semitism met with the almost 70 % approval.1 How widespread and deeply-imbedded are far-right ideologies and organizations in Europe? How have right-wing extremist and populist parties and movements fared? What are their historical roots, and what is the basis of their continuing attraction? Our volume of collected articles is intended to contribute to the ongoing review of this problem and to suggest the shape that an effective posture against the European radical right might take. It offers a follow-up to a 2011 book issued by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, entitled “Is Europe on the ‘Right’ Path? Right-wing extremism and right-wing populism in Europe.”2 The new anthology, like its predecessor, is being published simultaneously in German and English. It is the concluding publication of the German XENOS special program known as “Exit to Enter.” Between 1 Andreas Zick, Beate Küpper, and Andreas Hövermann, “Intolerance, Prejudice, and Discrimina- tion: A European report” (Berlin: FES, 2011). 2 Nora Langenbacher and Britta Schellenberg (eds.), “Is Europe on the ‘Right’ Path? Right-wing extremism and right-wing populism in Europe” (Berlin: FES, 2011). RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM IN EUROPE 5 2009 and 2013, the European Social Fund (ESF) and Germany’s Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) provided grants to fund projects designed to help people not only to exit the far-right milieu, but also to enter the labor-market with some prospects for success. The insights gathered over the course of the Exit to Enter program will be discussed in this book. While the volume includes studies of numerous countries, it focuses on two regions of special concern: namely, Central/Eastern and Southern Europe. In the latter region, the three countries chosen for analysis – Greece, Italy, and Portugal – all have been hard hit by the current fi nan- cial and economic crisis along with its devastating social impacts, but the far- right camps in those countries differ strikingly from one another. In addition to the country analyses, the volume contains an article offer- ing an overview of trends and structures of the radical right in Europe, as well as several essays dealing with counter-strategies, historical experi- ences, and perspectives on the confrontation with right-wing extremism. We are especially pleased that Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament since 2012, agreed to contribute an article. His passionate appeal: At a time when the right-wing-populist tide is rising on the con- tinent, we need the European Union more than ever. Schulz argues that the EU represents a unique effort “to introduce democratic principles into transnational relations by means of a political union and thus to keep democracy going even in a globalized, interdependent world.” Although the extreme right in Europe displays a set of common features, in many respects its component movements diverge markedly from one another. Considering the search for counter-strategies and the most precisely-tailored approaches, it seems especially necessary to analyze those differences with great care. In the former Soviet sphere of infl uence, nationalism and desires for ethnic homogeneity simmered for decades beneath the surface of the East bloc’s offi cial internationalist and anti- fascist posture. Indeed, to some extent they served as an unacknowledged 6 RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM IN EUROPE legitimation for the communist regimes there. Once the upheavals of 1989 and 1990 put an end to those regimes, nationalist and xenophobic sentiments began to reassert themselves even more forcefully. They were directed especially against the Sinti and Roma, but also against national minorities, Jews, and homosexuals. Nevertheless, Eastern and Central Europe hardly have a monopoly on right-wing extremism. In Western Europe most frequently, Muslim immigrants today encounter negative stereotyping, discrimination and rejection, a tendency that right-wing populist forces increasingly are trying to exploit. Contemporary developments in Hungary are especially worrisome. Yet until just recently it was, of all places, Denmark – a Scandinavian country with a highly-developed liberal tradition – in which the radical right was able to infl uence government decision-making. This occurred because the Danish People’s Party (DPP) acted to secure parliamentary majorities for a liberal-conservative minority government.3 From the viewpoint of the radical right, the Danish case provides one of the most