The European elections, which wrapped up this past weekend, are a grim warning that should be raising alarms and hackles the world over. Without a doubt, the biggest beneficiaries of this election have been a cadre of mostly right-wing, anti-EU parties united by strident anti-immigrant policies and over-the-top rhetoric that has made enemies of everyone from Muslims to Romanians.
Why should we be concerned about this on this side of the pond? Because much of this political rhetoric is simply localized variants on themes that bedevil us in the U.S. as well, and their success at the polls is a stark reminder to us that the battle to confront racist and sexist extremism is a global one, including in those countries that fancy themselves “tolerant” and “civilized” paragons of progressivism.
No less a country than Denmark returned several members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who belong to the viciously anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party, after all. If there was ever a time to ditch comfortable liberal illusions about the social-democratic utopianism of Northern Europe, it is now.
But of equal worry to us, and less emphasized in even the most hand-wringing electoral editorials, is the fact that many of these parties embody a sexism as reactionary as their xenophobia. We can take the UK Independence Party (UKIP) as a worthwhile case study, particularly since its breakthrough in this election has meant that it secured a plurality of British seats in the next Euro Parliament. Read More
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