Is Le Pen mightier than the sword?

By David Cronin

Date: 10/06/04

CONCERNS at the creation of a far-right political group in the next European Parliament are rising, as far-right parties are set to do well in this week's European elections.

Extremists from the British National Party (BNP) to France's National Front and the Danish People's Party are exploiting fears about alleged increases in the number of asylum-seekers.

Yet far from being 'swamped' with foreigners, as the far-right claims, there is a marked decrease in asylum applications across the EU.

Latest data from the United Nation's High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) shows that asylum bids lodged in the UK and France were down 20% and 7% in January-March this year, compared with the last three months of 2003.

The corresponding figures for Germany, Sweden and Austria - described by the UNHCR as 'major asylum countries' - were 12%, 25% and 24%.

"The statistics are proving wrong those people who want to scare the public with stories of 'invasions'," said UNHCR spokesman Diederik Kramers.

Nevertheless, fear of the far-right poaching votes from mainstream parties has meant their policies have had an impact on decision-makers.

Before the EU's expansion on 1 May, there were some 24 MEPs espousing what Searchlight, a London-based anti-fascist magazine, called "politics well to the right of mainstream conservatism". Among these, the largest representation was from Italy's Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance), which admittedly has been at pains to distance itself from its fascist past (the party sprung from Benito Mussolini's MSI movement) in recent years.

The party's leader - Italy's vice-premier Gianfranco Fini - was, for example, a vocal critic of his boss Silvio Berlusconi last year when the prime minister likened German Socialist MEP Martin Schulz to a Nazi concentration camp guard.

The other extremist deputies belong to France's National Front (5), Austria's Freedom Party (4), Belgium's Vlaams Blok (2) and the Danish People's Party (1).

In the outgoing legislature, the far-right lacked the kind of cohesion that would give it a significant influence in the assembly's regular work.

With some exceptions (eg the BNP is suspected of having links to pro-monarchy death squads in Northern Ireland), the far-right parties do not have much of a tradition of cooperating with like-minded parties from other countries.

In the 1999-2004 legislature, just the Alleanza Nazionale and Danish People's Party belonged to a formal political group (the Union for a Europe of the Nations, which also includes members of Ireland's main government party Fianna Fáil).

Remaining extremist deputies were all known in Brussels parlance as 'non-attached'.

"Ultra-right representation in the Parliament has been a dog's breakfast of competing factions at each other's throats," says Graeme Atkinson, Searchlight's European editor.

"They have been incapable of uniting in a single Parliamentary grouping, which would have long-term benefits and give them greater access to funds."

All that could change - according to a recent study from Simon Hix of the London School of Economics and Michael Marsh of Dublin's Trinity College.

In a forecast of this week's election, the two academics predict there will be enough far-right deputies to form a political group.

They suggest this could include one or two deputies from Austria's Freedom Party, two or three from Vlaams Blok, one from francophone Belgian party Front National, between seven and 12 from France's National Front, up to four from Italy's MSFT, two or three from the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), 13-17 from Poland's Self-Defence and five to seven from the League of Polish Families.

Despite their antipathy to cooperation, tentative talks have been held between some of these parties about the possibility of forming a Parliamentary group. Jean-Marie Le Pen, of France, has even said he foresees "a strong nationalistic movement inside the European Parliament".

Some pundits reckon such a group could have enough leverage, say, to secure the chairmanship of one of the assembly's committees.

Yet it is possible that politicians wishing to demonstrate their adherence to non-racist principles could band together to develop a cordon sanitaire against far-right deputies to prevent them from having important posts.

In effect, this happened during the outgoing Parliament, when an effort by the Italian Radicals to form a 'technical' alliance with Le Pen in order to have access to funds available for political groups met fierce resistance from the Parliament's hierarchy.

There is also a lively debate in some member states about whether isolating the far-right is an effective strategy.

At the level of Belgium's regional parliaments, efforts by other parties to shun Vlaams Blok seemed to give it a pariah status and it was able to milk for 'sympathy' votes.

Far-right political parties are expected to do well in the European Parliament Elections on 10-13 June 2004, with the British National Party (BNP), France's National Front and the Danish People's Party exploiting fears about alleged increases in the number of asylum-seekers. Article forms part of a European Voice 'European Election Special'.