Less than a week after the mass killings in Norway, evidence of a shift in the debate over Islam and the radical right in Europe already appeared to be taking hold on a traumatized Continent.
Members of far-right parties in Sweden and Italy were condemned from within their own ranks for blaming the attack on multiculturalism, as expressions of outrage over the deaths crossed the political spectrum. A member of France’s far-right National Front was suspended for praising the attacker.
Lurking in the background is the calculation on all sides that such tragedies can drive shifts in public opinion. The violent actions of a terrorist or homicidal individual can hardly be blamed on nonviolent political parties. But politicians have begun to question inflammatory rhetoric in the debate over immigrants, which has helped fuel the rise of right-leaning politicians across Europe in recent years.
“The biggest challenge is the opportunism of the center and I think this will change now,” said Joschka Fischer, Germany’s former foreign minister and a leading European voice on the left, pointing to the Danish government’s cooperation with the far-right Danish People’s Party, which has pushed through a partial reinstitution of border controls.
Security services across Europe have been re-evaluating their security plans and examining how prepared they would be in the event of a similar plot. In the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg on Wednesday, 140 police officers raided 21 homes as part of an investigation against a right-wing extremist group. The police said the action was not connected to the events in Oslo, but pressure to keep watch over extremists is now constant theme.
For more: Norway Killings Shift Debate on Islam in Europe - NYTimes.com
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