This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Freedom is Never More than One Generation Away from Extinction

Disheartened Voters in Europe are frustrated and changing the tone across the continent.

As the Supreme Court weighs in on the Immigration Issue in Arizona, Europe faces droves of people turning away from mainstream politicians; because they feel let down. Immigration has been one of the issues changing the tone across the European landscape.

The European financial crisis is also attracting extremists on both the far right and far left. There had been worries about Nazi ideology returning to power with some extreme parties winning parliamentary seats and trying to push their views and policies, which often entail issues impacting immigrants.   

Greece

Golden Dawn – an anti-immigration political party in Greece. They did not believe that Hitler used gas chambers to kill Jews during the Holocaust.  They also said they would like to plant land-mines along the border with Turkey and get rid of immigrants. The party was in power for one day. 21 members of the Golden Dawn were sworn into Greece’s Parliament mid-May.  The election left no party with enough votes to form a government, forcing elections last week again.

Find out what's happening in Woodburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Austria

The right-wing populist Freedom Party has become a force to be reckoned with in Austrian politics. The coalition government is made up of center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and the center-right Austrian People's Party (ÖVP).  Polls now place The Freedom Party consistently neck and neck with the two "old parties". Their leader, Strache is already telling people that if he comes into power, the country will no longer pay a cent for "bankrupt EU countries like Greece" because, for someone like him, "the red, white and red shirt" — a reference to the colors of the Austrian flag — "is tighter than the Brussels straitjacket."  The next national election is in 2013.

The Freedom Party now holds seats in parliament and due to their gains toughened asylum rules prevail.  It is now compulsory for immigrants to take
German courses. The party has been linked with the neo-Nazi fringe and have
made anti-Semitic remarks.  Their message has a tone of anti-immigrant, Euro-skeptic. The EU imposed sanctions against Austria. 

Find out what's happening in Woodburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Denmark

In 2011, immigrants seeking shelter there was 5,000, down from 13,000 in 2001.  The anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party of Denmark’s is the third largest party and has pushed the country to adopt some of the toughest immigration laws.  It has also introduced a plan to reinstate custom checks at their borders with Germany and Sweden.  The EU (European Union) regards this as spiritless and hinders the idea of free trade of goods and people.

Italy

Gianfranco Fini’s National Alliance morphed from Mussolini’s Fascist party, into the Italian Social Movement in 1990’s.  They have moved into the mainstream, became a close ally to ex-Premier Berlusconi and has decried its hardline roots of anti-Semitism and Mussolinni’s racial laws.

France

France's left wing Socialist Party now dominates at every level of government, also holding most regions and the mayor's office in most major cities. New French President François Hollande and his Socialist Party scored surprisingly well recently. But Marine Le Pen from the National Front is bringing far-right voters back into the mainstream and fold.  She’s remained prominent in presidential elections and has a loyal following and softening party message of old.  Her father was the leader of the National Front until 1996 and was convicted and fined a few times for anti-Semitism and racism. 

Today the policies of the National Front are more moderate but their goals are economic protectionism, a zero tolerance approach to law and order issues, and a strong opposition to immigration. They want to deport illegals, criminal and unemployed immigrants.

Netherlands

The Freedom Party of anti-Islam law became the third largest bloc in the Dutch Parliament in 2010 elections with 24 seats. The Netherlands government was made up of a fragile liberal-conservative coalition government, which had no parliamentary majority. This coalition resulted in crackdowns in immigration and a ban on the Islamic veil, the burqa.  Geert Wilders from the Freedom Party successfully brought down the Prime Minister last month.  The Coalition fell apart when he refused to support an austerity package aimed at cutting the country’s budget deficit within the EU norm.

Hungary

Hungary’s far-right activists used to rally in the streets. Now they’re in parliament, where their party, Jobbik, is accused of stoking hatred of Jews and Roma and gays.  Some of the rhetoric calls a crackdown on ‘Gypsy crime‘.  These activities have been banned under the current center-right Prime Minister Orban.  Hungrary’s Jobbik party won nearly 17 percent of the national vote and is currently the second-largest opposition party, behind the Socialists.

“The ballot is stronger than the bullet." —Abraham Lincoln

Now, I know some folks will argue that the decisions by the Supreme Court allows for discrimination and harassment through its decision to uphold the racial profiling section.  I won’t even pretend to be that knowledgeable on the issue, but I do know many will say this will embrace discrimination, that this will be an instrument of public policy where the hand wringing begins about not diversifying America.

 In the 20+ years I’ve been here, flying back and forth to different places, I’m more than happy to be profiled.  England has done it many times -- way before you even had a reason to be concerned in America.  I embrace it; it has saved lives.  I hope we will get to a stage in the world where we do not have to do this anymore -- the world does not seem to be going in the directions where it is entirely safe. 

The “hard right” and the “hard left” in politics are more similar than different [be it social or fiscal]. The hard right supposedly finds a place for social hierarchy as it believes that some are just born as harder / smarter workers and you can never have complete equality. If Joe earns an “A”, why should he share with Stu that didn’t work very hard / wasn’t as ambitious, and earned a “C”? And thus, we have
nationalist movements that find social hierarchy blended with the occasional economic strains from a surge in immigration / illegal immigration. “If we were all just a bit more like the Greeks of old, we wouldn’t be in this mess!” The poor
immigrant utilizing state-funded entitlements is their bogey-man.

The hard left supposedly find no place for social hierarchy; but instead, a centralized government takes full / partial control of business / the market, to ensure an equal distribution of wealth. Ideally, both Joe and Stu will work their hardest and be rewarded with the same pay. Unfortunately, what most workers from Eastern bloc countries comment upon was that if Vlad gets paid 5 apples to work fast or 5 apples towork slow; Vlad will work slow. But now, the hierarchy is simply that those within the centralized government are gifted with privilege as the wealthy entrepreneur [similar to the immigrant above] is the bogey-man and the anonymous bad guy. Sometimes the difference between Hitler-“fascism” and Stalin-“socialism” is just the head and tail of the same coin.

As an emigrant from Ireland, I know the unwritten rule - work harder than my American counterparts.  I’m in your country; I abide by your rules. When I lived in Germany, I abided by German rules, taxes and laws and I worked as hard as I could; realizing it would not be easy as a new arrival. I didn’t enter Germany and expect all Germans to speak Gaelic, follow the sport of hurling, serve Guinness or understand, “What was the craic in the pub like last night?”

Sometimes it seems that nationalism and its, only partially logical, mistrust of the “other” is only a razor’s edge away from socialism and its, only thinly substantiated, mistrust of the wealthy.

I suppose that I embrace true multiculturalism: learn and appreciate all cultures [especially the one you just moved into] – and work your backside off as a newcomer; not expecting anything – not even a fair shake initially. Human nature will not be perfected overnight for my convenience. I cannot expect to move to Brazil and immediately be on equal footing in the job market with natives. But I, conversely, should not become a burden on the State of Brazil or single it out for immigration simply because of some generous social welfare system it provides… should I?

If I were someone great, I would simply say, “smile often, work hard, and personally give to others!"

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?