The Axis of the Right: Europe’s New Isolationist Front

by Farid Hafez

Published on 08 Aug 2018

...

This article by Bridge Initiative Senior Research Fellow Farid Hafez originally appeared on Qantara.de.

Europe is shifting to the right. Border security and isolation increasingly dominate the migration policies of the European Union. At a national level, right-wing parties are peddling a symbolic identity policy to distract from cuts that undermine the very fabric of society, says political scientist Farid Hafez.

Whereas in the past, most European right-wing parties were confined to the benches of the opposition, several of these groups now hold the reins of power. One of their chief goals is to alter the character of the European Union: work on consolidating Fortress Europe should continue. At the same time, these right-wing populists are engaged in neo-conservative restructuring at a national level, deploying identity politics as a useful smokescreen.

Since the start of this year, Austria’s right-wing populist Freedom Party (FPO) in a governing coalition with the Christian democrat People’s Party (OVP) has been showing how it plans to turn the state inside out. The social safety net and education system are being undermined (for example, with cuts to minimum benefits and unemployment benefits) and labour rights curtailed. Companies, on the other hand, are benefitting from a reduction in corporate tax.

Staging a distraction with identity politics

Deploying symbolic identity politics, the government is attempting to distract the electorate from these socially unjust measures. The former not only include a planned headscarf ban in kindergartens and primary schools. A theatrically-staged media conference celebrating the closure of mosques as a blow to political Islam also falls into this category.

Read the full article here.