Last Sunday it was Sweden’s turn to see the arrival of an anti-immigrant and anti-Islam party in the national parliament.
The Sweden Democrats, or SD, got 6 percent of the votes and will take 20 of the 349 seats, leaving the country in a difficult situation because neither the ruling center-right coalition nor the center-left opposition parties got enough votes to form a majority government.
Although polls indicated for a long time that the populists SD would make it into the parliament this time, many in Sweden and abroad were shocked. The daily Svenska Dagbladet reflected the mood in the country when it commented: “It is Monday morning and time for Swedes to find a new self-image. A center-right government without a majority, a wrecked Social Democracy and a party with roots in far-right extremism holding the balance of power.”
After similar developments in Denmark and the recent rise of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, the conclusion can only be that not only Sweden should get used to the new realities. The established welfare states of Europe have been confronted with a new phenomenon: an extremist party holding the balance of power.
In Denmark, the Danish People’s Party, with whom the SD has strong links, does not take part in the government but supports, for the second time in a row, a conservative-liberal minority coalition. In the Netherlands, the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders got 15 percent of the votes in the June elections and is still negotiating with the conservative Liberals and the Christian Democrats to introduce the Danish model in Dutch politics: a center-right minority government that is dependent for a parliamentary majority on the extreme right. It is not a done deal yet, mainly because of strong opposition within the Christian Democrats against such a construction, but at the end of the day we could be faced with three countries in Europe that were, till recently, considered to be the champions of democracy and human rights, at home and abroad, where government policy is strongly influenced by parties that want to stop or radically diminish immigration and that see Islam, in the words of the SD leader, as “the biggest threat to Europe since the Second World War.” What is happening in Europe?
I am afraid these anti-immigration and anti-Islam parties will not go away soon. They reflect the fear and the anger among a part of the population in Europe consisting of citizens who do not feel represented by the established political parties, feel insecure amidst the global economic turmoil and who blame the presence of Muslim migrants for all the changes in their lives they don’t like. They will keep voting for parties that present themselves as anti-establishment and suggest that being tough on migrants and their religion will solve all problems.
The unsolved challenge is how to react to them. In the past, different strategies have been tried. In Belgium, all the other parties refused to cooperate with the populist right and the result was that they lost out to more moderate protest parties. In Austria, the radical right was taken on board in an effort to diminish their appeal. It worked in the short run but it did not take away the root causes for their ongoing success.
Personally, I think the Danish model is the worst option. It allows the extremists to appear respectable by making them responsible for government policies. At the same time, because they are not part of the coalition, they can continue to produce their hate speech and appeal to angry citizens. Let’s hope the Swedes find another solution and the Dutch Christian Democrats come to realize that ruling the country with the support of a populist extremist is not a viable option.
The rise of anti-Islam parties in Europe is deeply worrying and frustrating for Muslims around the world. But alarmist reporting on Europe turning anti-Muslim does not help. The large majority of Europeans do not vote for these parties. In fact, most radically oppose them. The best way for Europeans to deal with this new phenomenon is not to make the extremists more honorable by taking them or their ideas on board.
Trying to defuse some of the real problems related to mass immigration, hard as that might be, seems to be a better option. But those who are watching these developments from the outside with anger and disgust should not make the mistake of blaming the majority of Europeans for the errors of a minority.
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