Europe's Fault Lines: Racism and the Rise of the Right

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Her book is a timely contribution to spotlight the worrying increase of institutional racism in nation-states, the complicity of mainstream parties in enabling the rise of the far right and, especially, a radical critique of current ‘exit extremism’ programmes.

News came through at the end of May 2018 that Denmark has voted to ban the burqa and the niqab from being worn in public. Based solely on race and culture, whether sedition is from within or without the state, we witness double standards.over the last few decades and provides the reader with a clear picture of the state of political play in Europe, in particular the extent to which neoliberalism has been a fertile ground for reaction, in a world where the market has gained access to more and more aspects of life, and in so doing provoked the most monstrous reactions. The first chapter, entitled ‘The State of Play’, lays out the terrain upon which the far right has risen, and functions as an overview, providing the reader with a picture of them today: their aims; methods; groups and atrocities. Furthermore, it is illegal in some parts of Spain and one canton in Switzerland, while some parts of Italy have banned Islamic women’s swimming costumes, popularly known as ‘burkini’. In February 2018, Turkey expressed its displeasure at these developments by sending its navy to prevent an Eni drillship from reaching its destination in Cypriot waters, forcing the company to withdraw the vessel. t]oday’s socialism, like anti-fascism, must defend cultural pluralism, a basic tenet of democracy […] Democratic renewal needs its tribunes and its electoral parties, and without them, the authoritarian right will remain in power.

What appear to be "blind spots" about far-right extremism on the part of the state, are shown to constitute collusion-as police, intelligence agencies and the military embark on practices of covert policing that bring them into direct or indirect contact with the far right, in ways that bring to mind the darkest days of Europe's authoritarian past. The elites in these countries initially bought into the programme, but ‘since the financial crisis of 2008, it has become blindingly obvious that wealth, far from trickling down, is cascading upwards’ (p. The perspective I take in this book … eschews a boxed-in, academic study of fascism, which almost invariably divorces the study of the far right from a simultaneous study of the state, and the study of fascism itself from popular and state racism. Due to the concentration of population and economic activity, Istanbul is highly exposed to seismic hazard. Hence, we can summarise that to ‘argue that the extreme right is the main carrier of racism is to miss the point’ (116), but that instead there are many different breeding grounds from which their viewpoints spread.It is highly superficial, extremely subjective and poor product of 'academic' representation as the author works in the Institute of Race Relations, whose understanding of the world and geopolitics is highly questionable. The language used to justify this ranges from the blatant racism of Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán, to that used by leaders in the northern states, who tend to fall back on ‘the fiction that Europe is the continent of liberalism, generosity and the rule of law’ (p. These attacks, detailed by journalists or evidenced through video recordings, were described as intentional ‘houndings on immigrants’.

Given this book attempts to understand the far right in Europe, there is a surprising lack of analysis about the role of Islam in Europe - with no attempt to explore the ideology of Islamism, Salafism or Islamic concepts such as Jihad. Nevertheless, Fekete has written an informed, vigorous and compelling book, even if for me its main effect was to compel me to seek reasons to doubt her analysis. He stated he had ‘no reliable information’ that ‘houndings of migrants’ had taken place in Chemnitz and that he had ‘good reasons to believe’ that a video showing one such hounding was doctored.

Ascertaining dimensions of the problem is near impossible and is about to become that much more difficult.