Round the corner, right…

A Hungarian MP from the Jobbik far right party, Marton Gyongyosi, has suggested drawing up a “list of the Jews who pose a threat to national security.” This initiative made some representatives of Jewish communities recall the period of Nazi occupation. The Organization of Hungarian Jews is filing a lawsuit against Gyongyosi.

Incidentally, when I was recently in Budapest, I asked a local historian about what had caused the success of Hungarian radical nationalists. The not-so-young Hungarian politely evaded answering the question. Maybe, he did not want a lucid explanation to mar my political impressions about his fatherland, where the third-best finisher in the national elections was a party that is putting forward objectionable proposals which humiliate a certain ethnic group. By the way, Budapest is home to Europe’s largest synagogue.

Indeed, far right sentiments grow with every passing post-crisis year on the continent. It is really embarrassing to see the rising popularity of the ideas that stir up, one way or another, hatred towards some groups of the population.

In his Euronews comment, sociologist Paul Bacot puts the EU far right trend down to economic globalization. “This is economic globalization, outsourcing and all that it implies for a portion of the population. With globalization comes immigration and Europe is right in the middle of it. There are no real limits on Europe and the feeling is that it needs to be fenced off in some way, or at least have more defined boundaries. There’s the feeling that if there’s going to be enlargement then there should be limits,” the expert points out.

At the same time, many experts believe that the success of European radicals is not dangerous and will not last long. They claim that the economic crisis and illegal migration problems have just created a vogue for the far right who like to hold pep rallies and rouse people with populist slogans. It is believed that, once in parliament, the radicals will be gradually becoming part of the system, be more moderate and very often unable to really do something. This will supposedly make people lose interest in this kind of parties.

This logic is quite acceptable, but one should remember that far from all radical nationalist parties will really curb their fervor and moderate their stand when they come to parliament. Radicals make their way to parliament in a burst of emotions, which is often on the brink of bending or even breaking the rules. This weapon fetches them a morsel of power which they can, in principle, easily lose if they slow down on their drive.

Anti-emigrant sentiments will hardly vanish together with a certain political vogue. If the Europeans’ resentment over Asian and African guests boils down to purely economic matters, these problems will not be solved in one, two or five years’ time. Therefore, the energy of discontent will seek a political form of expression, instead of following the laws of the vogue.

But if it is the question of being in vogue, cautious antiglobalism is only the tip of the iceberg because political preferences are mostly the matter of an emotional, rather than rational, choice. And the problem in this case is not in politico-economic matters but in social mentality – or, to be more exact, in hatred towards certain groups of people and the attempt to transfer one’s own enmity onto the “aliens” who allegedly hinder the normal course of life.

It would be wrong, of course, to accuse all the Europeans who vote for the far right of hatred towards emigrants. The point is there are some obvious political trends that are sending shivers down the spine, and, in this writer’s view, we must highlight, for preventive purposes, all that concerns, directly or indirectly, the problem in question.

Let us note for our information that:

• The Hungarian Jobbik party won 44 out of 386 parliamentary seats in the 2010 elections.
• The far right National Front achieved a serious success in the 2010 French regional elections, polling about 2 million votes.
• The Dutch far right Freedom Party strengthened its positions in the country’s legislative body by coming off third best in the elections.
• The Austrian Party of Freedom surprised everybody in 2008, when it garnered as many as 17.5 percent of votes in a snap parliamentary election.
• The last year’s parliamentary race in Finland catapulted The True Finns, a right-wing populist party, to a third place.
• The Greek Golden Dawn party, increasingly referred to as neo-Nazi, won almost 7 percent of votes in this year’s elections.
• Besides, one should note electoral breakthroughs of such far right parties as Northern League in Italy, Smer in Slovakia, the British National Party, and Great Rumania Party.
• There are no overt far right factions in Russia’s State Duma so far, but we can all see Nazi-style organizations and societies rear their heads at the extrasystemic level.

And we, in Ukraine, have the Freedom party which astonished many by its result in the latest parliamentary elections. This party believes in the 21st century that the word “zhyd” (Ukrainian for “kike” – Ed.) is not emotionally colored or abusive for Jews irrespective of what Jews themselves think of this. (Even Microsoft Word underlines “kike” as a “word with a pronounced expressive coloring.)

Undoubtedly, now that Oleh Tiahnybok and his team are in parliament, it would be good if the Ukrainian far right understood that it is time to shift closer to the center, become more civilized, and refrain from offending certain ethnic groups with impermissible name-calling.

Freedom follows in many respects the European radical nationalist parties in such conceptual points as style of self-presentation, program provisions, promotional campaigns, etc. It is quite possible that Tiahnybok’s team will pattern its strategy of behavior in the Verkhovna Rada on the European far right’s parliamentary experience. On the whole, European radical nationalists and the Ukrainian Freedom have two ways to follow: one of them poses a threat to the party and the other to society. The first way is to regain their senses and become more moderate. But this may involve the risk of losing the support of radical-minded electoral groups. The other way is to remain radical and go on sowing something dangerous, cold, and brown-powdered in society. There is still a hope that common sense will prevail and the first way will be chosen.

Yevhen Stratiievsky is a Donetsk-based political scientist and journalist