Far Right and Green Politics in European Countries - Term Paper Example

“The rise of far right and green politics has fundamentally reshaped party politics in European countries” 1. Introduction The green parties and far right groups represent two extreme and opposing political ideologies. Whilst green parties advocate environmentalism, minority rights, social justice and similar policies, the far right espouse xenophobia, racism and nativism. Political observers note that these two non-traditional parties have meteorically risen in European politics in the past few decades. The green parties, which originated as social issues movements, transformed themselves into political parties adapting and evolving themselves from protest groups to being part of the political institutions of their respective countries. On the other hand, the far right started to reemerge cautiously in the 1980s, deliberately distancing themselves from the extreme right groups, such as the fascists, which had been resoundingly defeated by the liberal democracies during the World War II. The emergence of the green parties and the far right towards the latter part of the 20th century had the overall effect of changing the political landscape of several European countries such as Germany, Finland, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands, France and several others. 2. Background: Green Party and Far Right Political Parties The first green party was founded in New Zealand in 1972 and was followed by the emergence of similar movements in other parts of Europe. The party’s emergence in the 1970s was spurred by concerns for the environment, whose problems in the form of air pollution, sea and river pollution, dying forests and disappearing wildlife became the focus of concern especially in Europe, where there was higher population density and higher industrial activities. These environmental conditions were complicated by the eastern Soviet satellites whose industrial sectors had no pollution control. The green parties in Europe, however, were born not from a single environmental concern but from varied movements such as antinuclear movement and even women’s liberation movement and foreign workers movement. 1 The green parties are presently established in most liberal democracies, usually having started in the local level and widening the circle of their activities until they have established enough credibility to be acceptable in the national level where they organise themselves as political parties. Some green parties have achieved institutionalisation in their respective Parliaments. The Green Party of Germany, for example, which is named die Grünen was established in 1980 and in 1998, became a junior partner of the government. On the other hand, England and Wales’ Green Party, founded in 1985, is not represented in Parliament. 2 The French’s Les Verts emerged a year before the British with the motto ‘doing politics differently.’ Another green party with national level experience in the government is the Finnish Green Party which introduced itself in 1983 whilst Belgium’s two green parties called Ecolo and Agalev, both of which have institutionalised in the Belgian Parliament since 1981. On the other hand, the Irish Green Party, which was born at a time when Ireland was deluged by environmental protests against waste incineration, public transport, water pollution and non-development of rural areas in the early 1980s, is now slowly entrenching itself in its government political structure. 3 There are European green parties, which albeit without seats in their respective national parliaments have, nevertheless, established relevance to such institutions such as the green parties of Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands. There European green parties, however, that has no or little experience in their respective parliaments such as that of Canada and the British Green Party, which was established in 1972 with the name ‘People’ later officially changed to Green Party in 1985. 4 On the other hand, far right political parties had always been in the periphery even before World War II. The fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano was the most significant far right party at the seat of any national government prior to the war. In the wake of the victory of the liberal democracy in the WWII, however, extreme right-wing politics became marginalised. In Europe, the Fremskridtspartiet of Danish politician Mogens Glitrup in 1972 created quite a stir when it shot up as the second biggest political party in Denmark just a year later garnering 16% of the electoral votes on the strength of its revolutionary anti-tax program. Nonetheless, in the 1980s, only a handful of far right parties succeeded to gain a foothold in their parliaments.5 The last two decades, however, saw a stronger far right in Europe. This re-emergence is being tied to, among others, the rise in the number of European immigrants. European far right does not stem from a single ideological history but originated domestically from the perceived need to protect countries from outsiders or outside interests. Today, the far right parties are: the Freedom Party in Austria, the National Front in France, the Flemish Block in Belgium, the Progress Party in Norway, and the People’s Party in Denmark. 6 In addition, far right political parties have also established themselves in Romania, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Italy.7 The recent rise of far right political groups has caused much concern. Electoral records all over Europe, especially Western Europe, show that the far right groups have been winning at the polls at a rate never before seen in the post war period. The Austrian FPO, for example, under the leadership of Jorg Haider, tripled its support at the polls in just a decade and the Norwegian FRPn increased its survey ratings from 14% to 34% in just a matter of eight months in 2000. Figure 1 charts the rise of European far right political parties from 1980 to 2004 in seven European countries. The table shows the increasing pattern of electoral votes for the following parties: Italian MSI/AN; Austrian FPO; Swiss SVP; Danish FP/DF; Norwegian FrPn; Belgian VB, and; French FN. As can be seen, support for these parties were negligible in the early 1980s, but beginning 1987, support for them picked-up until the early 1990s, dipping a little in 1993. PERCENTAGE 18.0 16.0 14.0 12.0 10.0 8.0 6.0 4.0 2.0 0.0 YEAR 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 Fig. 1 Mean Vote for 7 Radical Parties in Europe 1980-2004 The following years, the dramatic rise of these parties continued and peaked at the turn of the century, decreased a bit for two years and stabilised after 2002. 8 The more alarming development, however, is that the far right group’s success is not confined to successes in the national and regional elections but they have also managed to gain real power at all levels. Thus, the FPO shared power on the national, regional and local levels; the LN of Italy partnered with the AN in a transitory coalition government; the FN of France took hold of four city halls at one time in the 1990s, and; in Norway, RRPn likewise governed a small town in 1999. 9 The threat that the present far right poses is not that it jeopardises democracy. Rather, the threat that the reemerging far right brings is that its goals and objectives conflict with the very ideals underpinning post-war liberal democracies. “The danger is that the growing appeal of radical right-wing policies and ideas will lead to a further erosion of openness, solidarity and historical sensitivity, while encouraging prejudice, intolerance, self-righteousness and blatant egoism.”10 However, Ruud Koopmans made the surprising observation that violence stemming from xenophobia and racism are comparatively lower in countries where the far right groups are politically entrenched. In support of this observation, Wolfgang Kuhnel pointed out the difference between Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France and Italy on one hand, and Germany, Sweden and UK on the other. Kuhnel said that in the second group of countries, where the far right has not made significant advances electorally, the groups have resorted to racially-related violence as opposed to the first group of countries where no such violence occurred. 11 3. Impact of the Far Right and Green Politics on Party Politics in European Parties 3.1 Germany Prior to the 1980s, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG hereinafter) abided by a three-party system constituted by the following: the Social Democratic Party (or SPD), which is a centre-left party; the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is a centre-right party, and; the Free Democratic Party (or FDP), which was a typical liberal party. The SPD and the CDU dominated politics then and they still do at present whilst the FDP was a small political party often used by either bigger party to constitute a majority and form a coalition with. The FDP was never a threat to either of the two dominant parties that the three party system was often called a “two-party system and a half.” 12 In the 1980s, however, party politics in Germany was becoming disinteresting with the two dominant parties hardly recognisable from each other. It was around at this time that The Greens joined the political fray. It was characterised as a post-materialist and ecological party. Still later in the decade, the Republikaner, a far right political party that had a nationalist/racist programme entered German politics. In the wake of German unification, party politics welcomed yet another major player from the east – the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the rehabilitated version of the GDR’s old communist party. In the 1990s, another far right group surfaced. This second far right group is called the DVU or the German’s People Union and its rise came at a time when Germany was reeling with high unemployment rates and voters, especially from the east side of Germany, were disaffected by the FRG’s political system. The DVU was able to exploit these factors and took a 12.9% share of the votes in Sachsen-Anhalt in 1998, a development that shook the entire country. 13 At the end of the 1980s, the FRG has three far right groups contending in the elections: the Republikaner; the DVU, and; the National Democratic Party of Germany (or the NPD), an extreme right political party that gained prominence in the late 1960s but declined in the 1970s. The extreme right’s breakthrough into the FDR politics is characterised as a failure, having been crushed in several elections, but nonetheless there remains the menacing potential of their existence judging from their tangible following during elections. 14 On the other hand, the Greens of Germany are considered one of the most successful green parties in Europe. It had the opportunity to share the seat of power with the SDP in 1998, a function that it had taken over from the FDP, taking three of the bureaucracy’s ministerial posts and in 2002, governed for the second time. 15 Today the three-party system of FRG has evolved into a multi-party system with the addition of several parties through the years, particularly The Greens and two far right parties, but still characterised by a dominant two-party system. Using a mixed proportional representation system, smaller parties get a chance to gain seats in the legislative bodies of the federal and regional parliaments so long as they garner a 5% share of the total votes. 16 3.2 France The entrance of the far right party in France paved the way for the disruption of the left-right division that characterised the party system of the country. The French party system of the Fifth Republic was characterised by bipolarism majoritarian structure in which there was an almost even dominance between the right-of-centre and the left-of-centre. The Gaullist party, which descended from Charles de Gaulle’s right-of-centre policies, dominated the Fifth Republic for a time until Francois Mitterrand was able to revive the left-of-centre Socialist Party in 1971 to even out the political system between it and the Gaullist party. The system came to be referred to as ‘bipolar quadrille’ because the coalitions on the left are evenly matched to the coalitions of the right, with support for either almost matching the other. The two parties making up each of the coalition of the left and the right constituted the ‘quadrille’ part. Thus, on the left are the Socialists and the Communists and on the right, are the Gaullists and the Giscardians. 17 In the 1980s, however, two developments occurred that disrupted the bipolar quadrille: the decline of the Communist Party, and; the emergence of the Right National Front (or the NF), an extreme right group. This period saw the swift decline of the Communist Party, which used to take 20% of the total votes. Parallel to this decline is the meteoric rise of the NF when it won in the 1983 municipal elections and parliamentary by-elections. The following year, the party garnered 10% of the total votes in the European Parliament elections. Since then, the party system configuration evolved from the bipolar quadrille to the presidential and anti-establishment division where three parties constituted the mainstream centre and two smaller extreme ones flanking them. The three mainstream centre parties, which have the potential to take the presidency at any time, are the Socialist Party (or the PS), the Neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) and the Liberal/Christian Democratic Union for French Democracy (UDF) whilst the smaller flanking extreme parties are the Communist Party (PCF) and the NF. 18 Meanwhile, the French Greens called La Verts have also insinuated themselves into the political arena coalescing with the PS to field electoral candidates in 1997 and succeeded in giving them their first national seats. 19 The left and right or bipolar logic of the French political system suffered another schism after 1997 when the mainstream right was defeated and many components of parties broke ranks from the original ones and set up their own. Divisions in all parties exist leaving the French party system turbulent and chaotic.20 3.3 Austria The Austrian political system was a two-party system where two political parties dominated the landscape for most of its political life until the 1980s. The two dominant parties were the Austrian People’s Party (or ŐVP) and the Austrian Social Democrat (or the SPŐ). From 1970 to 1999, the Austrian Chancellor had always been a member of the SPŐ and the SPŐ had governed from 1986 in coalition with the ŐVP. The coalition of these parties in the governance of Austria often led to a systematic allocation of bureaucratic positions between their members such as government positions in health care, education, banking and other state-owned industries. This political dominance, however, was cut short by the entry of die Grünen, or the Green Party, in the middle of the 1980s. Die Grünen advocated for the rights of immigrants but another party, the Freedom Party, which later coalesced with ŐVP, likewise entered the Austrian landscape at the same time and opposed the pro-immigrant position of the die Grünen. The entry of die Grünen paved the way for the evolution of Austria’s two-party system to a moderate multiparty system. 21 3.4 Finland Finland used to have a stable party system historically, with four big political parties dominating: social democrats; conservatives; agrarians, and; communists. In 1983, however, the Communist Party lost its standing leaving the three continuously dominating electoral contests. In 1983, the party system was described as “polarized pluralism” because it contained all the criteria described by Sartori, namely: “presence of anti-system parties; bilateral oppositions; centre placement of one party; ideological distance or polarization; centrifugal drives; ideological patterning; irresponsible oppositions, and; politics of outbidding.” 22 This is no longer true with the present Finnish political system because of the elimination of some of the aforecited factors. It does not mean, however, that its political system is less fragmented considering the multiple numbers of parties that are present in the Parliament today, which include The Greens.23 The Finnish Greens entered Finnish politics in 1983 with only two representatives to Parliament, doubled this in 1987 and in 1991, managed to get ten seats. Finally, in 2007, the Greens obtained 15 seats in Parliament out of the 200. It constituted the smallest political party but nonetheless added to the total number of parties that have gained foothold in the Finnish Parliament. Its current presence there, along with a large number of political parties have made the Finnish political system fragmented, which some even described as “malfunctioning.” This is an observation that stemmed from the lack of differentiation in the present multiparty system with any political party willing and capable of entering into coalition with another for convenience purposes. 24 3.5 Belgium Belgium is another European country whose political system shifted from a simple Catholic versus Liberal system in the 19th century to one of the most fragmented political systems in Europe today. With the entry of socialisation at the end of the 19th century, Belgium’s political system paralleled that of the ‘two and a half’ system of the FDR with the Liberals taking the role of smaller party with which the Catholics or the Socialists may either coalesce with. First, the system took a drastic change with the ethno-regionalist divide where parties, with different cultural and ethnological origins, originating from its various regions represented themselves with political parties, splitting the three major parties and shifting political divide from its original religious underpinning to a cultural one. 25 In the 1970s, another cleavage occurred in the Belgian political system causing another increase of the number of political parties when the far right party Vlaams Blok and the green parties AGALEV and ECOLO entered the political arena. Another extreme right group entered in the 1990s – the Francophone National Front – placing the number of political parties existing in the Parliament to more than 10 and making the Belgian party system a multidimensional party system. 26 4. Conclusion The emergence of green parties and the far right in Europe had fundamentally changed the party politics in some European countries. Towards the end of the 20th century, environmentalist movements had transformed themselves from protest movements to political parties and ran in the elections in various European countries. The far right, which had been disempowered and disgraced in WWII also reemerged, this time repackaging themselves by distancing from the anti-democratic policies of their predecessors. The entry of these parties into the politics of their respective countries proved quite successful for some of them. Nonetheless, for most of these parties, their entry changed their country’s party politics. In such countries as Germany, France, Finland, Belgium and Ireland where the green parties were able to gain a foothold in their respective national parliaments, party politics were disrupted and were forced to accommodate their entry. Similarly, the far right parties successfully entrenched themselves into the party system of Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands. These parties’ foray into their respective national politics, imply a disruption into what were originally two- or three-party systems and transformed them into multi-party systems. In Germany, for example, the two and half party system was disturbed with the entry of the Greens and later by the entry of two separate far right groups. Although the far right groups were not as successful as The Greens, their entry all changes the party politics in that country. The bipolar quadrille system that had dominated France for so long ended with the entry of a far right party – the NF – and changed its system forever. Another green party ended the two-party system of Austria and changed it into a multiparty system. Likewise, the entry of a green party in Finland further muddled its party system turning it into more fragmented than ever, a situation also reflected with the entry of both green party and far right in its politics. References: Betz, H.G. ‘The Growing Threat of the Radical Right’ Right-Wing Extremism in the Twenty-First Century by Merkl, P.H. & Weinberg, L. (2nd edn Taylor & Francis, 2003). Connelly, J. & Smith, G. Politics and The Environment: From Theory to Practice (2nd edn Routledge, London 2003). de Winter, L. & Timmermans, A. & Dumont, P. ‘Belgium: On Government Agreements, Evangelists, Followers and Heretics’ Coalition Governments in Western Europe by Müller, W & Strom, K. (Oxford University Press, New York 2003). Duiker, W. 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