Wow, that took time. Turns out that I'm seldom in the mood of posting in ATPN during weekends in military service periods
But now prepare for a detailed reply:
Much of this information from The Guardian is outdated or plain wrong. Too much for a serious newspaper.
Austria
Freedom party (FPO)
Key figures: Jörg Haider (FPO's de facto leader and governor of Carinthia),
Susanne Riess-Passer (FPO leader and vice chancellor, Austrian sports minister)
Led from 1986 to 2000 by Nazi sympathiser Jörg Haider, the FPO came second in the 1999 general elections on an anti-immigration and anti-EU ticket, winning 27% of the vote and 52 seats in parliament under the PR system. Soon after the vote, Austria weathered the wrath and sanctions of the EU after the rightwing People's party agreed to form a coalition government with the FPO.
FPO members currently hold six posts in the Austrian cabinet, but growing tensions between Mr Haider and FPO moderates are threatening to split the party. However, the FPO is still strongly supported in parts of its southern electoral heartlands - Mr Haider's achievements are likely to endure for some time.
Special report: Austria
Haider is a far right, anti-immigrant, disgusting politician to me. I could write down some anecdotes why this bastard annoys me but I don't have the time to do it now (It suffices to say that he is a strong opponent of bilingual town signs where the Slovenian minority traditionally is strong. I give the Austrians credit for a law that requires them to be bilingual there, though). But he likes to put himself into the spotlight and he is not representative for the moderate wing of the FPÖ which is present in some the other regions. For a good part of his career, Haider was mainly influent in his home province (he avoided direct contact with the national level when he thought that he is more powerful in regional politics-Austria's regions are not politically homogenous).
Recent developments made it difficult to predict the future of the right and the far right in Austria. In 2002 the FPÖ's result went down to 10 percent. As junior partner in the government coalition they also were less influent than some members had hoped. The tensions between Haider and other party members have finally led to a split. Haider founded the extreme right BZÖ (Alliance Future Austria) while the remaining part of the FPÖ stays in the coalition. Surprisingly the FPÖ also adopted a less moderate language and is flirting with the national right, too. At the moment it's sort of a contest of who's the "real" national right party that doesn't benefit neither of the parties: The latest predictions for the 2006 elections are about 8% for the FPÖ and 3% for the BZÖ (meaning that they won't pass the 4 percent hurdle).
I disagree however with the citation of the EU reactions as proof how extremist the FPÖ is, because the EU sanctions were totally wrong in my opinion. Also, the EU was inconsequent (or changed its policy against non-centrist governments) because Italy didn't have to deal with EU interventions after 1999 with a coalition that was, in my opinion, similar to Austria's.
Germany
Republican party (REP), German People's Union (DVU), National Democratic party (NPD)
Key figures: No dominant leaders.
The far right in post-war Germany has manifested itself largely as a neo-Nazi youth protest movement, with plenty of unpleasant rallies by disaffected and racist youths from both the east and west of the country. However, none of Germany's three minor far right parties has made headway at national level. In the 1998 parliamentary elections, the REP and DVU mustered just 1.8% and 1.2% respectively - way off the 5% hurdle over which votes can translate into seats under Germany's dual PR/first past the post electoral system. However, these parties have had limited successes at local level, and since the Kohl era, anti-immigrant policies have made it on to the national agenda.
Okay, first to the only thing the Guardian got right: This three parties are extremist right. The REPs are slightly less than the other two, the NPD takes the lead and doesn't try to hide its anticonstitutional and racist nature. All organisations are under observation of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and an effort to make the NPD illegal nearly succeeded few years ago.
Contrary to the statement of the Guardian, those protests indeed took place mainly in the east of Germany in economically weak regions (mostly former East Germany federal states), economy being a main reason why this parties are relatively popular there. But their influence is limited by two facts. First, every other German party doesn't form governments with the three right extremist parties on principle. This automatically makes them a part of the opposition whereever they get elected. Also because of this, the idea of a seamless political spectrum from left to extreme right must be rejected. It is more like a separated political biotope. Second, their bilance at local and regional level isn't impressive at all. Of the 16 provinces, the NPD currently is present in one parliament (Saxony: 9 / 124 seats), so is the DVU (Brandenburg: 6 / 88). The REP is absent. On a local level, their results vary but still, they're in the opposition everywhere.
It is also not correct that these parties have "no dominant leaders". In fact they have rather steep hierarchies and tend to be the project of very few individuals. The DVU owes its president 4.3 mil ?, this permits him to lead in an authoritarian style. Even in relatively successful phases, there's no regional autonomy in these organisations. It's all top-down there.
And finally, there is no tendency towards right-wing extremism in Germany. I don't dispute that there was a wave of media attention for this issue, even on an international level, because NPD demonstrations produce unappetising pictures. But look at the results of the Bundestag election of 2005 yourself:
NPD: 1.6% - REP: 0.6% - DVU: did not run
All parties were far from passing the 5 percent hurdle and don't influence politics on the national level in any way. The claim that there is a tendency is disproved by the fact that the three parties were founded between 1964 and 1987, too - they are not new by any means.
Also, I'm curious which anti-immigrant policy the Guardian is talking about, because I don't remember a particular law. From 1991-2001 there was more immigration than emigration in Germany (I don't have newer numbers).
Italy
Northern League, National Alliance
Key figures: Umberto Bossi (pictured: leader, Northern League),
Gianfranco Fini (leader, National Alliance)
The xenophobic Northern League and the post-fascist National Alliance entered a rightwing coalition with Silvio Berlusconi's governing party following general elections in 2001. Defying international criticism, Mr Berlusconi gave three cabinet posts to the Northern League, despite the fact that it only polled 4% of the vote, and one key post to Gianfranco Fini. With policies such as authorising coastguards to shoot human traffickers and the belief that the EU is run by paedophiles, the Northern League's inclusion in government prompted widespread concern across Europe.
Bossi and Fini still are the presidents of their respective parties and both parties still are junior partners of Berlusconi's (Forza Italia) government. It is not certain if their coalition will lose the next election but it is clear that these parties are stagnating. I'm not going to write much about the Northern League because they are very anti-immigration in my opinion, too. The famous suggestion to shoot at the boats of illegal immigrants came from Bossi. This is a quote from an interview, though. The Lega Nord made no formal attempt to enact such a law.
Things get more complex when judging the National League (Alleanza Nazionale). During the last ten to twelve years, their leaders changed the former postfascist party into a moderate, national conservative thing. It is discutable how deep the change was, as parts of the people at the basis remain the same and some leaders were already active during the disreputable past. The shift in political orientation however gets very clear when looking at Fini who mutated from a Mussolini-admirer into a critic and pro-EU-politician. Fini visited Auschwitz and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and openly distanced himself from his past perspective. No matter if one believes this, it IS an oversimplification to categorise the Alleanza Nazionale as far-right.
There may be other parties in the far right that escaped The Guardian's attentive eye *coff*, but they are not important so far.
The Netherlands
Pim Fortuyn's List (LPF), Liveable Netherlands
Key figure: Mat Herben (leader, LPF)
Mat Herben, a former defence ministry spokesman and the current LPF party spokesman, now leads the party that still bears the name of his predecessor, who was shot dead on May 7. In general elections on May 15, LPF came second only to the centre-right Christian Democrat party (CDA), winning 26 parliamentary seats in its first ever election contest. It is now preparing to enter a coalition government with the CDA. However it is doubted whether LPF can survive in the long term without its maverick founder.
Despite standing for zero immigration and stating that Islam was "backward", Pim Fortuyn's politics represented a uniquely Dutch take on the far right. He was openly gay; his deputy, Joao Varela, was himself a black immigrant; and some critics said he was less extreme than other European far right leaders. Fortuyn formed LPF this February after being sacked by the Netherlands' main far right party, Liveable Netherlands, for the strength of his anti-immigration stance.
After internal disputes, the LPF lost 18 of its 26 seats in the 2003 elections. Livable Netherlands lost both seats at the same time.
The interaction with the muslim minority has become a topic in all parties by now even though they naturally have different opinions about it.
Norway
Progress party
Key figure: Carl Hagen (leader, Progress party)
Norway's far right Progress party has propped up a rightwing coalition government since elections last October, in which the Labour government that had dominated Norwegian politics for almost a century was ousted. The Progress party, which wants to cap immigration at 1,000 people a year, won 26 out of 165 parliamentary seats after polling 14.7%.
While the Progress Party increased its percentage of votes in 2005, they no longer are part of the administration.
Portugal
Popular party
Key figure: Paulo Portas (leader, Popular party)
Portuguese parliamentary elections held this March saw the Popular party win 14 seats, after polling almost 9% of the vote. The fiercely anti-immigration party, led by crusading rightwing journalist Paulo Portas, is now part of a rightwing coalition. Mr Portas has pledged to introduce tight immigration limits and to prevent the transfer of further national powers to the EU.
(I'm not that informed about politics in Portugal.)
Switzerland
Swiss People's party (SVP)
Key figure: Christoph Blocher (Leader, SVP)
Although it does attract extreme right support, the SVP is best described as hard right. The party takes a strongly anti-immigrant line but its populist leader, Christoph Blocher, insists he is not racist. After elections in 1999, the party became Switzerland's second-strongest political force, polling a joint top 22.5% and winning 44 seats. However, Mr Blocher's bid to enter government failed when his request for a second SVP cabinet post was rejected by the other coalition leaders.
The SVP is best described as a normal right party. In the late nineties the party succeeded to attract electors from the hard right (although not from the extreme right. I'll write about those parties shortly) and they also used some campaigns of arguable value and provocative content to achieve this. From this era comes the poster canoworms likes to cite so much ("More and more, the Swiss are becoming the negroes"). It was from the section of St. Gallen and was fiercely criticised internally, too. What canoworms doesn't understand is that "to be the negroe" is an old and rarely used figure of speech synonymic to "pull the short straw" and that this slogan is not about immigration. Well its main purpose was to attract media attention and as we see, it worked. (There however never was an SVP poster of "brown-skinned devils feasting upon the blood of white girls")
The SVP is a strong supporter of strict Swiss neutrality and opponent of any military involvement in foreign operations and peacekeeper missions. They are against EU membership and think of themselves as patriots. Where some of the other parties think that the government should spend money (say, integration courses for immigrants) they are more in favor of low taxes. But this stays in a context of a generally liberal perspective (liberal meaning here that the government shouldn't get involved everywhere and keep its activities low). The SVP doesn't ask for the expatriation of immigrants and for zero immigration, but they think that immigrants should integrate themselves and that they should do this with their own efforts.
Positioned right of the SVP are the nationalistic SD (Swiss Democrats). Contrary to the SVP, they want immigrants to leave and no new immigrants. I hesitate a bit to call them outright racist but they sure are xenophobic nuts. After the attack of the "SVP sponge" they now are nearly insignifant and occupy one of the 200 seats in the national parliament. They are present in three of the country's 26 regional parliaments.
The far right is represented by the PNOS (party of nationally oriented Swiss... gotta love the euphemism). These extremists are outright Nazi sympathisers. The federal police office estimates that they have 130 members, thereof 30 active ones. The PNOS holds two mandates at the communal level.
The SVP is now the strongest party in Switzerland, followed by the Social Democrats (26.7%, 23.3%). They now have two ministers in the seven head Swiss administration (that by the way consists of four parties that represent about eighty percent of the electorate), Blocher beeing one of them. Blocher no longer is party president and has some less brilliant rhetoricians as successors. The intensified integration of the SVP in government responsability has led to slightly more moderate communication habits but the SVP still occasionally pull a provocative campaign "by accident" (be it xenophobic or about other subjects), followed by the ritualised apology and internal discussions. This party knows how to play the media, heh.
United Kingdom
British National party (BNP)
Key figure: Nick Griffin (leader, BNP)
Thanks partly to Britain's electoral system, the racist BNP is highly unlikely ever to return an MP to Westminster. Its best ever electoral showing was at this May's local elections, in which BNP candidates won three local council seats (out of a national total of over 6,000) in the deprived and racially divided Burnley. The BNP's Cambridge graduate leader, Nick Griffin, wants to pay non-whites to return to their countries of ethnic origin and to withdraw Britain from the EU.
Special report: The far right in Britain
Special report: race in the UK
"Thanks partly to Britain's electoral system..." With a 3/6000 bilance you won't achieve much in a proportional representation system either, lol. I hear the same drama tune like in most other descriptions.
Maybe some P&Ners from the other side of the pond can give us an opinion? From everything I have read the far right parties are gaining popularity, as well the poll in Denmark that showed the DPP gaining popularity pretty quickly. It seems that EU might be taking a hard swing towards the anti-immigrant/far right.
Like I initially said, this article is a classic example of inaccurate journalism. Speaking more generally, if you see a headline like "dramatic political shift in (insert continental European country)", keep in mind that as far as parties are concerned, politics are more dynamic here. A party can win or lose it all, but it's very likely that when I die, it's still the GOP and the DEMs that compete for power (or Labour and the Tories, respectively). After some years, many newcomers turn out to be only a blip on the radar, and a new successful party is less sensational news than it would be in Britain or the US because the hurdles are significantly lower. Also, a shift in election results doesn't mean that an extrapolation will show the results of the next elections, like everywhere else.
By the way, Switzerland and Norway are not EU members.
Some comments to replies in no particular order:
No centrist governments? There are centrist parties in power, or coalitions of left and right parties (p.e. in Germany)
Genocide. From Portugal to the Ukraine many European nations made great steps towards democracy in the last fifty years and you claim that racistically motivated genocides are unavoidable everywhere. That's as unrealistic as it gets. There are flaws remaining but you fail to see the general tendency. Some of the minorities you named are in trouble but others are not. It's a plain exaggeration to say that muslims are discriminated everywhere.
Eurobarometer. I've written a long reply to the 66% racists claim some time ago. Sadly it seems to have been deleted in the meantime. I'm not going to write the entire thing again but i recommend to update your standard of knowledge with broader and more up to date information:
Key Findings from the Eurobarometer and the European Social Survey (1997/2000/2003). You'll be surprised that the EU isn't 90% racist yet and I'd be happy to compare the studies with results from North America but it partly is also a case of the EU knowing more what's happening in their countries than others, at least I'm not aware of continuous statistical examination of these issues elsewhere.
Voting numbers. It is not true that typical voter participation is in the 20-40% range. Percentages in the fourties and fifties are more common.
Muslim riots. They were NOT common in Europe. Worst I've seen was the manifestation in London with the unappetising slogans. But regions with strong minorities or muslim majorities protested peacefully or not at all (Germany / Bosnia-Herzegovina). The violent TV pictures originated somewhere else.
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