Monday, September 18, 2006

Europe inches to the right

As I predicted, Europe has s-l-o-wly started creeping to the right, as two recent elections have shown.

In Sweden, the 12 year reign of the Leftist Social Democrats was ended as a center-right coalition assumed power under the Moderate Party and its leader Fredrik Reinfeldt. While the Moderates are hardly likely to dismantle Sweden's welfare state, a significant part of their appeal was based on unemployment and the restoration of law and order...both issues that reflect Swedish concerns with Muslim immigrants.

In Germany, the far right anti-foreigner National Democratic Party (NPD) won state elections in Angelea Merkel's home state The NPD gained 6 seats in in the 71-seat state parliament in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at the expense of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Leftist Social Democrats (SPU).

Here's a quote from Udo Pastoers, a watchmaker who leads the NPD in Mecklenburg- Vorpommern: "Tourists are welcome, but we don't want asylum-seekers."

Will the trend continue, and will it morph into a nativist, hardline movement? Will the major European parties shift enough to the right to take an anti-jihad stance?

Stay tuned...

1 comment:

Freedom Fighter said...

I would much rather see the mainstream European parties grow a spine and address the problem..but it appears that hasn't happened thus far.