"A Small Thorn in The EU's Side
By Marion Kraske and Hans-Jürgen Schlamp
Far-right politicians from seven countries have joined forces in the European parliament to promote the ultra-conservative agenda within the EU. The mainstream parties are debating how to deal with this new faction, made up of nationalists who appear to have little in common."
Editorial note EU-Digest: Even though this neo-conservative group is only small now it is a growing and dangerous political development in Europe. The success of European Neocon politicians like Geert Wilders (the Netherlands), Jean-Marie Le Pen (France), Gianfranco Fini (Italy), Joerg Haider (Austria), Devlet Bahteli (Turkey) and others is a clear indication that these politicians have been able to capitalize on the inability of more moderate politicians to articulate the benefits of the EU. Looking back in history let us not forget that Hitler also decided to seize power constitutionally rather than by force of arms. The Nazis gradually devised an electoral strategy to win northern farmers, white collar, lower middle class and the peasantry voters in small towns, which produced a landslide electoral victory in September 1930 (a jump from roughly 3% to 18% of the votes cast). The people who voted for Hitler's Nazis' were nationalistic in their political views and feared that the depression and the Jews would deprive them of their standard of living. In religion, most of the Nazi supporters were Protestant Christians. Similarities between the political situation in 1930 Germany and todays political developments in Europe are real. Hitler used the Jews and democratic forces as the scapegoat to instill fear and to consolidate his power. Today's neo-conservative politicians in Europe use nationalistic and populist slogans about the dangers of immigration and terrorism to instill fear among the same segment of voters Hitler courted in 1930 to achieve power. The last thing the neo-conservatives would want to see is that the EU gets a constitution to put its house in order. The neo-conservative threat is real and if it is not countered by Europe's more moderate politicians, it will become a slowly spreading cancer destroying the EU ...one of the greatest political experiments in modern times.
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