Who profits from the migrant crisis? Fear.

The slogan for numerous electoral or political campaigns in Europe might be “Immigration and the whipping up of fears around it, that will nail some votes.” And so these recent electoral victories form part of the development of an instrumental propaganda of fear. 

https://www.npa2009.org/actualite/international/europe-qui-profite-la-crise-des-migrants-au-pire

By Bertold du Ryon

Translation by Tom Gagné

It can be seen in Poland on Sunday two weeks ago, where the nationalist party of the conservative and sovereigntist right PIS (Law and Justice Party) has won parliamentary elections. Coming in at about 38% of the vote, the party will rule with its future Prime Minister Beate Szydlo.

A hateful madness

Aside from some skepticism around “Europe”, the PIS has focused specifically on the fear of migrants during its last electoral campaign. Even though the European Commission has attempted to limit the number of migrants entering Poland with its current distribution plan of 160,000 refugees among the 28 EU countries, PIS party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has not hesitated in presenting migrants and refugees as disease carriers and a “health risk.”

Accusing the outgoing government, supported by the liberal party Civic Platform (PO), of having secretly promised Brussels to accept “100,000 Muslims”—an outright lie—Kaczynski predicted that Poland would see “the destruction of its churches, the introduction of sharia law, and the obligation to adopt Islam and terrorism.” The line between political agitation and delirious hate has been crossed. He added to these alleged threats against the good blonde people that “cholera has been raging on the Greek Islands” along with “dysentery in Vienna.” So far, any mention of the plague has been missing in this repertoire of the party leader who will now (again) be directing Poland.

In another setting and different economic situation, but with the same patterns of rhetoric, the Swiss People’s Party (SV)—misnamed in French as the Democratic Union of the Center—was the main winner of the Swiss parliamentary elections earlier in October. Now with 29.5% of the vote between both sides of the French and German borders, the right and the far right saw its best results since 2007 when they achieved 28.9% of the vote. “The theme dominating this campaign is really unfortunate; people were guided by fear,” commented Socialist candidate, Rebecca Ruiz, in reference to the debate on refugees.

Polarization in the streets

Among other German speaking countries, both Germany and Austria are contributing to an unquestionable polarization. Even if the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) totaled 30.8% at the ballot in regional elections on October 11 in the Austrian capital, its victory was nevertheless refuted with social democracy gaining the majority at 39.6%. The FPÖ took less than their projected outcome of 35%. This is related to an active awakening from the parts of society that refuse to totally mire themselves in racism. And so 60,000 people took to the streets in solidarity with migrants on October 3 in Vienna.

In Germany, polarization occurs most especially in the streets. Behind racist slogans, almost 20,000 people demonstrated on October 20 in Dresden for the first anniversary of the launch of Pegida (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamification of the Occident), and even 10,000 demonstrators on October 27. On the other side of the street, thousands of participants took part in a counter demonstration of the first event and 1,300 during the second one.

Having more popularity in the former East Germany and especially in Saxony, the anti-immigration movement has still struggled to gain a foothold in the major cities of West Germany. On Octboer 25, an event called for by the “Hooligans Against Salafism” (Hogesa) and supported by Pegida and the extremist right party Pro-NRW (Popular Movement for North Rhine-Westphalia) gathered together 1,000 demonstrators with 10,000 counter-demonstrators. There were 24 people injured, including 12 police officers. It was exactly a year ago that the “anti-Islamification” movement Hogesa managed to bring a surprising number of 4,500 people. The police and the 800 counter-demonstrators were totally overwhelmed. Hogesa didn’t know how to stabilize a movement for the long haul, while its opponents were much better prepared this year.