Far-right in government: Is it a cause for concern?

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Europe

Two months after elections in which it very nearly came in second, Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) made the jump back into government on Monday, in a coalition with the conservative People’s Party.

This makes Austria the only western European country with the far-right in power. But it is not the first time the FPO has graced the hallways of government – this already happened in 1983-1987 and more recently in 2000-2005.

So are the big headlines justified? Is there still cause for concern?

Far-right parties have been doing well lately in Europe. In France’s presidential election in May, the Front National’s (FN) Marine Le Pen made it into the run-off against Emmanuel Macron. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’s Party for Freedom (PVV) came second in March’s general election, while Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the first far-right party to enter parliament in nearly 60 years in September.

(L to R) Marine Le Pen, head of French far-right National Front, Tomio Okamura, leader of Czech far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy party and Geert Wilders of the Dutch PVV party give a press conference outside Prague, Czech Republic, December 16, 2017. /VCG Photo

Part of this trend is a simple desire by voters for something different, says Gregory Payne, an expert in political communication at Emerson College in the US.

“Today's populist movements are… a reaction to the public believing that the current system is not working and is broken,” he told CGTN.

The message they send out is “politics as we have known it… is dysfunctional, and we have to change it. Details of how are very flimsy, but the public buys into it as they want change.”

A string of recent terror attacks and the 2005 migrant crisis, which saw over a million refugees stream into Europe, have also put security at the forefront of voters’ minds.

This has played into the hands of parties like the FPO or PVV, which have long warned of a coming Islamic invasion and now find that their calls for tighter borders and curbs on immigration are being listened to.

Journalists at an election night event for the AfD party in Berlin, September 24, 2017. /VCG Photo

But even without entering government, the danger these parties represent is that they are changing the debate, according to Sasha Polakow-Suransky, author of “Go Back to Where You Came From: The Backlash Against Immigration and the Fate of Western Democracy.”

“The centrist parties are so afraid of losing votes to the far-right, that in most cases they have caved in to the demands and adopted many of the ideas of the far right in order to win voters back,” Polakow-Suransky told CGTN.

Last year, Denmark’s center-left Social Democrats backed a bill allowing the confiscation of refugees’ belongings to finance their resettlement.

Austria’s conservative People’s Party, the Dutch Labour Party and France’s Socialists (PS) have also adopted rhetoric taken from far-right rivals in a bid to win back votes.

Heinz-Christian Strache, Austria's vice chancellor, left, and Sebastian Kurz, Austria's chancellor, pose for photographs during the inauguration of the new federal government in Vienna, Austria, Dec. 18, 2017. /VCG Photo

The far-right’s power has thus been “in shaping what passes for mainstream in political debates so that even if they don't govern, others will pass legislation based on their ideas,” Polakow-Suransky argued.

“Many of these far-right leaders don't necessarily see winning elections as essential... even when they lose elections they still win because they have shifted the goalposts of political debate.”

A silver lining may be the governance test: If they make it into government, far-right parties used to firing from the sidelines are also expected to produce results.

That could be the undoing of the FPO, which came out of its last stint in government split and with a fraction of its earlier support.

A supporter of Dutch far-right Freedom Party leader (Partij Voor De Vrijheid, PVV) Geert Wilders holds a pamphlet during a rally in Heerlen, March 11, 2017. /VCG Photo

For Austrian political analyst Anton Pelinka, this new spell in government could see the FPO crash again. “The reason in 2002 – and it could be the same again – is that populist opposition rhetoric is hard to translate into government policy.”

Western democracies also have checks and balances that ensure that power cannot be concentrated in just a few far-right politicians' hands.

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen reportedly insisted on having an Austrian People's Party “minder” to oversee the work of FPO chief strategist and new Interior Minister Herbert Kickl. Fears of the intelligence services falling under far-right control also led to a pledge for more oversight by the chancellor and president.

Such developments may be why the response to the new Austrian government has been more muted this time around. In 2000, the international reaction was severe, with the EU slapping sanctions on Austria for months. Protests in Vienna were also such that the new cabinet had to make it to its swearing-in via an underground tunnel.

Austrian riot police guard protesters in front of the parliament during the swearing-in ceremony of the new government in Vienna, December 18, 2017. /Reuters Photo

In contrast on Monday, a few thousand protesters outside the Hofburg Palace in Vienna and a series of international headlines were all that greeted the new government.

Still, the danger remains that far-right parties have learned from past mistakes and refined their message, according to Polakow-Suransky. “They are much more sophisticated and well versed in policy than last time.”

Marine Le Pen’s FN is a far cry from the anti-Semitic party led by her father Jean-Marie, while the Danish People’s Party is “very modern and well organized and professional.”

“In this political climate, where hostility to immigrants and Muslims is widespread, if a professionalized far-right party came to power they would be able to govern effectively, pass some of their policies and retain support,” Polakow-Suransky warned.

For Pelinka too, watchfulness is now the order of the day. “It will certainly be helpful if public attention – especially international attention – keeps a vigilant and critical eye on the situation,” he said.

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