ADDENDUM 2
Extremist parties and movements in Europe
The following text was submitted for inclusion in the official report
by a member who was present in the Chamber but was prevented by lack of time from
delivering it.
Extremist parties and movements in Europe
Mr SIMONSEN (Norway).— When basic assumptions are wrong,
the conclusions will be even worse. This is the case in this draft recommendation.
When presenting his report, Mr Gjellerod makes use of background
material from the European Centre for Research and Action on Racism and Anti-Semitism
— background material that was so full of mistakes that, during the September
part-session, the Assembly decided to refer both the report and the appendix back to the
committee. The proposed draft recommendation does not look much different from when it was
reviewed previously.
The rapporteur obviously still maintains that, in several member
states, there are large political parties with growing support that encourage intolerance,
xenophobia and racism, and he decides to label these as extremist parties. At the same
time, he puts a label on large groups of voters in several countries. If they cast their
votes for parties that are racist, they themselves must be racists. Mr Gjellerod dares to
mention only a few parties by name; otherwise he is very vague as to which parties he is
thinking of in his insinuations. This, of course, makes it impossible for representatives
from these parties to defend themselves from his insults. They do not know whom he is
attacking.
In my opinion, Mr Gjellerod clearly sees ghosts in broad daylight.
European voters do not cast their votes in the ballot box for the advantage of racist
parties, but parties that take the problems concerning integration of immigrants seriously
do exist. These parties call for a more restrictive policy than the majority and are
therefore labelled as racist by political opponents in an attempt to reduce the popularity
of these parties.
Let me use my own party, the Progress Party, as an example. I am a
member of the organisation Parliamentarians against Anti-Semitism. I have a large circle
of friends among immigrants in Norway, and I am a member of several large support
organisations for Israel. I also have Palestinian friends in Israel. I certainly do not
consider myself to be racist, but my party is often labelled as "anti-immigrant"
— without any substance in reality — by political opponents. There is a clear
distinction between, on the one hand, being anti-immigrant — which is clearly racist
— and, on the other, working for a more restrictive immigration policy.
The Progress Party is the second largest party in the Norwegian
Parliament.
Mr Gjellerod does not mention the Norwegian Progress Party in his report — at least
not by name. On the other hand, he draws attention to the Freiheitliche Partei
Österreichs, and this party's clever leader Jörg Haider. In the foreign media, the party
is demonised. Following the elections in Austria, Israel's President felt that Israel
ought to consider breaking diplomatic contacts with Austria because the FPÖ did so well
at the elections. All over Europe reporters, scientists and politicians have tried to
analyse what happened in Austria — and most of them concluded that Austria had not
undergone a strong enough absolution of its past after the second world war. This is the
reason for Mr Haider's success. Maybe the reality is much more simple.
I asked a very well-known Austrian politician from a competing party
whether
Mr Haider really is a sort of neo-nazi in sheep's clothing. The answer was of course no.
"But he is a clever populist," was the answer. That is not exactly the same
thing. One cannot criticise a popular political programme that takes the voters' concerns
seriously. Therefore, perhaps the answer to the question why the FPÖ had such a good
election result is quite simply that the party has a programme that the electors like, and
a clever marketing person as its leader, and not at all that it is an extremist party. I
believe Mr Gjellerod can sleep well at night.
