The ascension of the Extreme Right in Europe: Should people worry about it?

-Research paper-




ANDY ROTH
ESL26
Instructor: Tanya Beserra










Europe, throughout its history, has had a very tumultuous evolution of nationalist and xenophobic movements. Every one of the major countries on the old continent has had a history filled with wars for survival or expansion with the other major European powers, and the suffering each country has been through has caused strong feelings of national identity.
After the Second World War, which was by far the highpoint of all the racism-based conflicts in the world, Western Europe has tried to leave nationalism, extremism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism behind it. And it seemed to have succeeded in doing so until the last few years, when xenophobia has started to come back in the spotlight of the European political and social scene. However, the recent racism in Europe is not caused by an involution of the Europeans mentality, but by significant changes that have occurred in the society, the increased number of immigrants, phenomenon that is seen by many people as the root of the growing crime-rates throughout the continent, the high unemployment rates and, very importantly, the large number of immigrants has caused many people to feel insecure about their national identity.
Racism has been brought back to public attention this year when, in the French presidential elections, the leader of the French National Front Party, Jean-Marie Le Pen has entered the second round of the elections along with the current President, Jacques Chirac, shocking the entire world with the victory over the Socialist Party’s candidate, current Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin. This has raised huge debates all around Europe and in the US over what has changed in Europe’s mentality, in its openness towards people of all races and religions.
Jean-Marie Le Pen was by no means a new figure on the French political scene. Actually, he first ran