What does the rise of a radical-right party like the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) have to do with anti-discrimination policy in Europe? In the year 2000, after the FPÖ became part of the government in Austria, the EU passed the Racial Equality Directive (RED) as a response to the party’s anti-immigrant position. In 2015, I… Continue reading “Legislating Equality: Anti-Discrimination Policy in Europe”
Since the death of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled from 1939 until his death in 1975, Spain has been a country without a strong radical right-wing presence. In fact, in 2017, Senior Analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute Carmen González-Enríquez declared Spain ‘inoculated’ against radical right-wing populism because of the legacy of… Continue reading “Vox and the Return of the Radical Right in Spain”
As I sat down this morning and switched on my computer. I couldn’t help but notice the headline in the Spectator, ‘The Islamophobia’ problem. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised that the author was Douglas Murray. In his latest tirade of anti-Muslim scaremongering, Murray was contemplating the roots of Islamophobia. For Murray, Islamophobia – in… Continue reading “Islamophobia is not Fiction or a Harry Potter Fantasy: It’s Racism and it’s time we accepted that”
This is a revised version of the acceptance speech of the leading Austrian discourse analysis scholar, for a ‘lifetime award’ from the Austrian Ministry for Women, Families & Youth. Speech. Honored guests, dear friends! Let me begin by saying – despite receiving a life-time award [1], I am certainly not going to stop working now, I will… Continue reading “Free spaces for thought and de-acceleration”
In October 2018, the Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA) took to the streets of London in their thousands to protest against issues such as “returning jihadists” and “rape gangs”. Keen to stress they are not racists but concerned members of the public, a grassroots movement who simply want to be heard, they claim the voice… Continue reading “Catalyst or Catharsis: Inside the DFLA Secret Facebook Groups”
Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin’s new book, National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy styles itself as a ‘primer’ on what the authors label ‘national populism’. It is already causing a great deal of controversy and stimulating debate. Is the term ‘national populism’, which has not been widely used in academia to date, problematic? Is… Continue reading “Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin, National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy (London: Pelican, 2018) £9.99”
In late August, the east German city of Chemnitz startled observers from all over the world. On 26 August 2018, 35 yr.old German Daniel H. was stabbed to death after a quarrel had escalated at a city festival in Chemnitz (Saxony). Shortly afterwards, the police arrested two asylum seekers from Syria and Iraq as… Continue reading “Scenes of ‘civil war’? Radical right narratives on Chemnitz”
Germany to the Germans! Foreigners out” was the central slogan of the racist riots in the city of Rostock in 1992. For around three days, neo-Nazis controlled the streets in the plattenbau district of Lichtenhagen where the central registration for asylum-seekers (as well as a housing block of Vietnamese contract workers) were situated. With stones… Continue reading “The truth lies in Chemnitz?”
The neo-nationalist and anti-immigrant party could make gains, but may have hit an electoral ceiling. This Sunday’s national election could mark a dramatic shift in the landscape of Swedish politics. If the polls are accurate, it is unlikely that the traditional blocs on either the left or the right will win a majority. The balance… Continue reading “The Sweden Democrats remain deeply unpopular despite making gains”
Richard Wilson Preston Jr. is not a nice guy. When the imperial wizard of the Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan came to the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a year ago, he was spoiling for a fight. “I will go out and shoot you,” he fumes in one video. “I’m… Continue reading “The Curious Case of Daryl Davis, the Black Man Befriending Members of the KKK”