The 2019 European Parliament Elections provided an important case where the far-right Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) performed electorally well. However, we argue that there is a core tension within the AfD’s party strategy. This tension lies at the regional level, with a clear split ideologically within the party between Western and Eastern Germany. We… Continue reading “East v. West? The Internal Battle within the Far Right in Germany”
On March 9th, before the German 4th division football match between Chemnitzer FC (CFC) and VSG Altglienicke, supporters of the CFC were holding a moment of silence including a pyrotechnical display for Thomas Haller, the former chief of the notorious hooligan gang “HooNaRa” (Hooligans Nazis Rassisten, or Hooligans, Nazis, Racists), who died the day before.… Continue reading ““HooNaRa”: Football Clubs in (East)Germany and their problems with right-wing extremism”
Placating radical right rhetoric will not stop the EDL, Pegida and the rest of the angry acronym brigade. If you want a definition of not being able to see the wood for the trees, look no further than those who are spending their time arguing over whether ‘no Brexit’ or ‘no deal’ would be the… Continue reading “Pandering To The Far Right Is No Way To Counter Them”
The far right has often been described as a concept that is hard to define. Although there is still controversy around its three basic components, i.e. the intension (number of defining attributes), the extension (number of empirical phenomena), and the term (the label) that best characterizes it, we should not neglect the fact that much… Continue reading “Concept structures and the far right”
The assimilation policy of integration, actively practiced across Europe, is one of the main prerequisites of xenophobia. The latest measurements in Europe show that after a sharp spike in xenophobia and radicalism in 2015 caused by the migration crisis, the situation has improved slightly, but in some respects it has become even worse. In 2017, for… Continue reading “Europe Is Caught in a Wheel of Xenophobia”
As far-right leaders focus on migration, other challenges fall by the wayside. What is the most pressing problem facing the world today? Is it the proliferation of nuclear weapons, threatening the annihilation of the human species? Is it climate change, which could lead to many of the world’s major cities being flooded, or whole regions… Continue reading “Migration Fear-Mongering Distracts From More Severe Crises”
The Economist recently published an article titled “European xenophobia reflects racial diversity, not asylum applications.” Despite the misleading title, the article actually purports to show that the ethnic and racial make-up of a country is strongly correlated with increases in pro-immigrant sentiment in Europe. It illustrates this using a scatterplot, where points represent the… Continue reading “No, the Racial Diversity of a Country Does Not Perfectly Predict Pro-Immigrant Attitudes”
In Germany, campaign advertisements for Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a radical right populist party that, among other things, is opposed to migration, included an image of a pregnant women, whose face is not shown apart from her smile. It carried a slogan that translates as ‘New Germans? We’ll make our own.’ Other campaign posters feature… Continue reading “Gender, Identity, and the Radical Right”
Having worked in the probation service for over 16 years, I was always exposed, and privy, to the ugly realities of individual and collective drivers for the radical right. However, the punishment and rehabilitative ideal at a practitioner level was far different to that of building resilient communities and engaging civic society groups in my… Continue reading “The Many Faces of the Far Right”
In 2015, the ‘refugee crisis’ was a pressing issue facing European societies. Now, it has become the main vehicle for mobilizing the far right. Three years ago, Europe faced its largest influx of migrants since the wars in former Yugoslavia. A seemingly endless flotilla of unseaworthy boats attempted to cross the Mediterranean, as desperate people… Continue reading “How The Refugee Crisis Fuels Radical Right-Wing Extremism”