On 22 May 2017, an Islamist suicide bomber detonated his bomb outside an Ariana Grande pop concert at the Manchester Arena. His chosen target was guaranteed to kill the most innocent in our society, young people, predominantly teenage girls enjoying a night of music and dancing. The Mayor of Greater Manchester, former MP Andy Burnham,… Continue reading “Here’s How We Should Combat Radical Right-Wing Terrorism”
My CARR Blog for October will cover one of the most courageous events of the Second World War, where Jewish prisoners, against all the odds, rose up against their captors in the Sobibor death camp, in South-Eastern Poland. This blog will be in two parts, part one will cover the initial phase of the revolt.… Continue reading “The Sobibor Death Camp Revolt – October 14, 1943 – Part 1”
Newly elected Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s narrative is one that lends itself to creating what historians of dictatorship have called a ‘cult of personality’. One of his supporters recently told The Nation, reiterating claims now surrounding Bolsonaro: ‘He is the messiah! He was knifed, but rather than stay at home or lie on the beach,… Continue reading “Is He a Fascist? The Election of Jair Bolsonaro”
For anyone paying attention, the radical right is on the march. Recent years have been more favorable to their fortunes than at any time since the end of World War Two. True, much of this is driven by demographic change in western Europe and the US, and elsewhere; by appalling acts of terrorism that rightly… Continue reading “Paging Mr Aaronovitch: The Radical Right doesn’t need any more help from the mainstream”
I am reviewing this superb book for CARR as it is probably fair to say that most people with an interest in the radical right also have some interest in the history of the Holocaust. More importantly, this is a book that deserves to be read beyond specialists in Holocaust historiography and general readers… Continue reading “Why? Explaining the Holocaust”
My study of the radical right in my book Voting Radical Right in Western Europe focused on the institutions that determine the “rules of the game” – in particular, electoral systems and the difference between proportional representation and first-past-the-post systems. I argued that electoral systems need to be taken into account when comparing party systems… Continue reading “Voting Radical Right in Western Europe “Rules of the Game””
“We may only be at the beginning of the populist radical right surge in European politics.” Electoral Oblivion The Netherlands, Hungary, France, Germany and Sweden: what do all of these countries, stretching across both Western and Central-Eastern Europe, have in common? They share one core uniform feature; namely, widespread patterns of electoral volatility, with a… Continue reading “The Decline of the Left and the Populist Radical Right Surge in the Refugee Crisis”
The Austrian Habsburg Empire was famous for its motto: ‘not to lead wars but instead, to marry [and to colonize more territories]’; frequently repeated in Latin, bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria, nube! Austrian politicians seem to have recently remembered this strategy for expansion and have decided to stage their weddings in a similar fashion. Of course, everyone… Continue reading “The EU’s Putin Wannabes”
Anti-Semitism is dangerous because of what it reveals about people and systems, not just in and of itself. In 2010, a British journalist born in Poland, Ewa Jasiewicz, spray-painted the words, “Free Gaza and Palestine” on part of the wall of the old Warsaw Ghetto, together with Yonatan Shapira, a former captain in the Israel Defense… Continue reading “What’s Wrong with Anti-Semitism?”
Four years ago on October 20, 2014, ‘Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident’ (PEGIDA) staged their first-ever demonstration in the city of Dresden. About 350 people attended. Soon, the weekly PEGIDA protests turned into the most talked about issue in German politics. In the winter of 2014 and 2015, up to 20,000 people… Continue reading “PEGIDA turns 4 – will AfD be among the well-wishers?”