Many European countries are
witnessing electoral gains for far-right and nationalist parties, though
they span a wide political spectrum.
The migrant crisis has
fuelled a backlash against the political establishment, but the wave of
discontent also taps into long-standing fears about globalisation and a
dilution of national identity.
How is this right-wing backlash reshaping Europe's political landscape?
Austria
In
recent years the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) has shaken up the
centrist consensus politics that dominated Austria for decades after
World War Two.
The FPOe candidate, Norbert Hofer, won the first
round of Austria's presidential election on 24 April 2016. He is likely
to face an independent rival in the run-off vote in May. So for the
first time since the war neither of Austria's two main parties made it
to the run-off.
The president's role is largely ceremonial. But Mr Hofer's score
reflected widespread voter frustration with immigration and the
political establishment. Hundreds of thousands of migrants poured
through Austria last year hoping to settle in Germany. Some 90,000
people applied for asylum in Austria itself - 1% of the population.
When
the late Joerg Haider led the party it achieved its best ever result in
2000 and entered the government, causing enormous tension with EU
partners.
The FPOe did well in local elections last year, including Upper Austria, where it took 30% of the vote.
European Parliament seats (MEPs): 4
Denmark
Denmark's immigration rules are among the toughest in Europe -
reflecting the power of the Danish People's Party (DPP), which came
second in last year's general election.
Its 21% of the vote was a record for the party, and now the ruling coalition depends on DPP support in parliament.
The Eurosceptic DPP also won Denmark's European Parliament election in 2014 by a wide margin, with 27% of the vote.
The
DPP opposes multiculturalism, as do nationalists in the rest of
Scandinavia, where centre-left social democracy no longer dominates in
the way it did for decades.
Denmark became a target of Muslim
anger in 2005 when Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons
depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
Controversially Denmark has given
its police the authority to seize valuables worth more than 10,000
kroner (£1,045; $1,514) from refugees to cover housing and food costs.
The government has also cut migrant benefits and put adverts in Lebanese newspapers warning against migration to Denmark.
MEPs: 3
Finland
The
nationalist Finns Party (previously the "True Finns") came second in
last year's general election. Party leader Timo Soini is Finnish Foreign
Minister, in a coalition government.
The party advocates strict
immigration controls and argues that Finns, not migrants, take priority
for social and healthcare spending. Its roots lie in rural Finland and
it has championed welfare policies that give it a populist dimension.
MEPs: 2
France
Many political observers see Marine Le Pen's National Front (FN) as
the biggest nationalist challenge to Europe's liberal democratic
traditions.
Ms Le Pen is expected to make a formidable push for
the French presidency next year. That is likely to trigger a repeat of
tactical voting by the Socialists and conservative Republicans to block
her.
The FN won 6.8 million votes in regional elections in 2015 -
its largest ever score - but lost in two target regions after the
Socialists pulled out and urged supporters to back Nicolas Sarkozy's
conservatives.
Marine's father Jean-Marie Le Pen, the FN founder
who was fined for Holocaust denial, shocked France in 2002 when he won
through to the second round of the presidential election. Marine
famously got him expelled from the FN in a family feud last August.
The
FN has two seats in the French National Assembly (parliament) and in
2014 won the French European Parliament election, taking 25% of the
vote.
Marine Le Pen is anti-EU, rejecting the euro and blaming
Brussels for mass immigration, because of the Schengen free-movement
policy.
In 2010 she told FN supporters that the sight of Muslims
praying in the street was similar to the Nazi occupation in World War
Two.
The Islamist attacks on Paris in January and November, which
nearly 150 people were murdered, raised alarm about jihadists taking
advantage of Europe's open borders.
MEPs: 21
Germany
German
politics has been shaken up by Alternative for Germany (AfD), a
right-wing party launched in 2013 by economists opposed to the euro.
Under leader Frauke Petry it has drawn ever more support by rallying
against immigration.
The AfD's success has been interpreted as a
sign of discontent with Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy for
Syrian refugees.
Last year Germany took in a record 1.1 million asylum seekers, many of them Muslims from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The AfD has seats in half of the German state parliaments, though none yet at national level in the Bundestag.
Ms Petry has called for "drastic steps" to prevent Islamist ideology spreading in
Germany, including a ban on construction of new minarets. She says
Islam "does not belong to Germany" - though Muslims who "practise their
religion peacefully and privately" can be good citizens.
She
sparked a furore when she suggested that border police should be
empowered to shoot illegal migrants if necessary. Her deputy Beatrix von
Storch backed that suggestion.
Stridently anti-Islam rhetoric
came initially from Pegida, a mass movement that started in the eastern
city of Dresden, then spread to other German cities.
Pegida
regularly draws thousands of supporters at anti-immigration marches.
Neo-Nazi groups are among the Pegida followers, who denounce "the
Islamisation of the West".
AfD MEPs: 2
Greece
The
popularity of far-right Golden Dawn - widely considered to be a
neo-Nazi party - has surged during Greece's economic meltdown.
Members
have been accused of serious crimes including murder. The party's
leaders went on trial in 2015 over the murder of anti-fascist rapper
Pavlos Fyssas.
Yet Golden Dawn secured 7% of the vote in the
September 2015 election, and it now has 18 MPs, making it the third
biggest force in Greek politics.
Its vote was especially strong
among people hardest hit by the crisis. The austerity demanded by
Greece's creditors turned many Greeks away from the political
establishment.
The anti-EU party wants to expel migrants and has distributed food in poor areas - but only to Greek passport-holders.
MEPs: 3
Hungary
Far-right Jobbik is the third strongest party in Hungary - it won 20.7% of the vote in the 2014 general election.
The
party denies that it is racist, but has organised patrols by an unarmed
but uniformed "Hungarian Guard" in Roma (Gypsy) neighbourhoods.
Jobbik
says more must be done to tackle "Gypsy crime" and party members have
also stirred controversy by making anti-Semitic remarks.
Hungarian
flags dominate Jobbik rallies, along with the red-and-white Arpad
stripes, which are often seen as an echo of Hungary's pro-Nazi wartime
regime.
With Jobbik support the conservative government of Prime
Minister Viktor Orban erected a razor wire fence along its border with
Serbia last year to keep migrants out.
Mr Orban and Slovak Prime
Minister Robert Fico are suing the EU over its quota scheme for
distributing migrants among member states. Both leaders say Europe has
to defend its "Christian" heritage.
Jobbik MEPs: 3
Italy
Local
elections last year delivered big gains to the Eurosceptic,
anti-immigration Northern League (Lega Nord) beyond its Venice power
base.
Since the party's launch in 1991 it has called for the
creation of a separate northern state called Padania, combining Veneto,
Lombardy and some other regions. But today its emphasis is less on
secession, more on boosting the northern regions' autonomy and paying
less tax to the central government.
The influx of migrants from
North Africa has put a severe strain on Italy's asylum infrastructure
and revived the fortunes of the Northern League. Some of the party's
politicians have made xenophobic comments about migrants.
The party got 4% in the last general election, in 2013.
MEPs: 5
The Netherlands
Geert Wilders, with his mane of blond hair, is one of Europe's most
recognisable nationalist politicians. His anti-EU Party for Freedom
(PVV) has surged to the top of Dutch opinion polls.
He wants to
stop Muslim immigration, arguing that Islam is incompatible with Dutch
values. He wants the Koran to be banned in the Netherlands.
He is currently involved in a court case, accused of inciting hatred against Moroccans.
In the 2010 general election the PVV won 24 seats, making it the third-largest party.
MEPs: 4
Slovakia
The
ultra-nationalist People's Party-Our Slovakia of Marian Kotleba entered
parliament for the first time this year, winning 14 seats.
Mr
Kotleba has previously dressed in a uniform modelled on the Hlinka
Guard, the militia of the 1939-45 Nazi-sponsored Slovak State. But now
he wears corduroy casuals.
Immigration was a major issue in the
election campaign, even though Slovakia has taken in very few migrants.
Robert Fico's Smer-Social Democracy party won - and he contributed to
the anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Smer MEPs: 4; Our Slovakia MEPs: 0
Sweden
The
nationalist Sweden Democrats (SD) have challenged the traditional
dominance of Sweden's Social Democrats, a party associated with generous
social welfare and tolerance of minorities.
The SD argues for strict immigration controls, opposing multiculturalism.
In
2014 the SD became the third-largest party, winning 13% in the general
election. But they are shunned by other parties in parliament.
More than 160,000 asylum seekers arrived in Sweden in 2015 - the highest per capita rate in the EU.
MEPs: 2
Switzerland
In October 2015 the anti-immigration Swiss People's Party (SVP) won
the parliamentary election with a record 29.4% of the vote. That
translated into 65 out of the total 200 seats in the lower house.
Switzerland
is not in the EU, but is in Europe's Schengen free-movement area, and
has a high population of immigrants compared with its neighbours.
Support
for the SVP has grown during the migrant crisis. For years the party
has pushed for tough immigration controls, using controversial black
sheep posters that opponents describe as racist.
It spearheaded a
campaign to cap EU migrant numbers - and the Swiss voted to do so in
2014. But there is now EU-Swiss legal wrangling over free movement of
workers, as the Swiss appear to be defying the Schengen rules.
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