The Rise of the Far Right | The News Agents Investigates

the news agents investigates something is stirring across Europe slowly then quickly a tectonic change to our politics to where the balance of our politics sits we are the people radical elements of the right even far right once consigned to the fringes of political life are growing in number in parliaments in power Islamic ideology and is a threat to our freedom they did in 45 for the Jewish people it's the same zione people say we can rule the war the the world is for for us and the rest is slaves I'm very worried I'm mad I'm angry because I think he's a new Hitler they're poisoning the blood of our country that's what they've done the Invasion on our southern coast from Italy to Germany to France Argentina Spain Sweden Hungary the UK and now most recently the Netherlands the far or radical right have captured the conversation the power to shape how we think the power to move the center of the political axis to the point where they don't even seem extreme anymore that they've become normal or mainstream when both they and what they're saying and neither on this episode of the news agents investigates the rise of the far right the collapse of the center why liberal democracy is under siege in Amsterdam across Holland as Christmas and a new year near the country's liberals peer around the corner and they shudder around that corner is her VES a perennial Fringe candidate of the Dutch far right for over 20 years I believe Islam is is a is a is a violent and dangerous religion and even a [ __ ] culture among other things he's advocated Banning mosques Banning the Quran I asked for the Banning of the Quran because it's a book that is of incitement of hatred he's called for climate change measures to go through the shredder he's called Dutch Moroccans scum that are being harassed that are being terrorized by often not only but often um um Muslim Youth of a Moroccan youth he wants to leave the EU to liberate Europe from the monster of Brussels he's Pro Putin and he wants to stop all age Ukraine he is the only member of his party the only one allowed he was once banned from the UK because he was considered so extreme that he might be a threat to Public Safety well I uh couldn't have a better welcome I hope and yet in November's snap general election called on the issue of migration his pvv party came first he could be he likely to be the next Dutch prime minister Dutch liberalism the Dutch left the center right the Dutch political establishment have been shaken to their core he scared people at this protest in Dam Square he's compared to antoon muset the leader of the Dutch Nazi party so you're worried I'm very worried I'm mad I'm angry already 20 years ago I found him scary because I think he's a new Hitler they voted for him because the um racism is deeply rooted in this Society but why the change 20 miles away from the demo a different political world altogether voland Dam a fishing Village in deep Holland it's quintessential small town and a place which had 57% of the vote for vilda two themes emerge quickly the Cascade of repeated immigration crisis Ripple through Dutch and European politics it's a a a man like Trump he's like Trump yes that's he's a Dutch Trump yes yeah I think it's a lot about immigration and a lot about uh um things that uh Europe uh has uh uh uh forced us to do I I I also want to live on Hawaii and give and get all the money uh everybody wants that but yeah that people are not the people that need uh help I think and you think vilda is speaking to that is addressing people's concerns about that idea of people gaming the system or taking advantage of the system it's only immigration that he wants to stop a little bit and do you think immigration should be stopped for yeah we have a lot of people small land with 90 million people yeah got too many people here to many people yeah and the idea that vas can be controlled that he's moderated and his ideas are less extreme than they seem if if you are in a government you have to make uh how do you say that you put uh water in the wine so make yeah a compromise uh so I don't think that everything he says is uh uh really forced that way because he says uh uh all the Islamic people have to go out that is that's a statement that nobody wants because you don't believe it you don't no no no I don't believe [Music] that so immigration is basically absolutely Central to the dynamic of All European politics right now certainly in Western Europe you can tell in terms of talking to voters here but it could be any country virtually and we see those echoes in Britain as well and I think the most Central thing is this politicians mainstream politicians so-call who constantly rail against immigration who constantly say basically what a bad thing is how it needs to be stopped or brought under control and then failing to do it and not only failing to do it but actually overseeing massive increases immigration it is absolutely creating a profound political effect and discontent with voters and they're just thinking well if we're going to have someone if these politicians constantly walk the walk in terms of using the rhetoric around immigration use the rhetoric around that the far right have used increasingly we might as well have someone who actually just does it and that is where the far right come in and the reason of course that politicians normal more mainstream politicians don't reduce immigration is because they know that over the longterm it's what aging European economies need just to keep the wheels turning but it feels like the Gap right now between the politics that electorates are willing to accept and what the economies need just to keep going is absolutely vast mainstream politicians aren't filling it with reasoning as to why they're doing what they're doing and the people who are filling that vacuum are the far right before we go any further we should Define our term the far right is on the rise and it means something specific could you just give a very crisp definition of what you mean by when you talk about the far right and how they are different from the traditional conservative right yeah the far right um consists of parties that the the core ingredient of their ideology is an exclusionary form of nationalism so they're nationalist right they they focus on the own Nation but in addition they argue that the nation is being threatened by dangerous others and that can be many different groups that can be immigrants can be people of another religion when it's Muslims it's islamophobia when it's Jews it's anti-Semitism and I combine this Outlook with a more authoritarian Vision which means that they have an understanding of society that it should be strictly ordered and people who break the law should be punished severely so these two combined the first one is called nativism the second one is called authoritarianism parties that endorse both messages are called radical right andlike anything the far right is a spectrum Oran in Hungary is the best example of an authoritarian farri leader someone who dismantles Democratic structures there's no doubt though that the new radical right forces the populist and far right whatever you call them as different as they can be have been growing in strength in recent years look across the map Leen in France Maloney in Italy the Swedish Democrats Cher in Portugal afd in Germany vo in Spain Law And Justice in Poland or in the anglosphere consider how a taken over Republican party has spoken of dismantling Democratic institutions you know why I wanted to be a dictator because I want a wall right I want it doesn't get more far right than that and on the populist or radical right side there was ukip the brexit party in the UK even taking over part of the conservative party a Home Secretary talking about invasions in its wake the British people deserve to know which party is serious about stopping The Invasion on our southern coast and which party is not the conservative center of gravity has shifted take rishy sunak just last weekend speaking at Georgia Malone's Pet Project radical r European conference then we must have a deterrent people must know that if they come to our countries illegally then they won't get to stay it's as simple as that whatever you call them these forces are new different to the more moderate liberal conservative forces they've often replaced builders for what it's worth rejects the accusation he's far right but there can be no doubt whatever you call him he is deeply anti-islam he has even claimed that Islam and democracy are incomp compatible the Islamic ideology is a threat to our freedom and that aggression has a [Music] cost utre like the rest of the Netherlands has a substantial Muslim population long settled many are terrified we are very concerning actually about if if he comes prime minister because his party program is very clear he said I will BN the the mosques closed mosques AB the head Courts for Muslims and he forbid Islam actually he because he think that the Islam is not a religion but an an extreme ideology understandably Dutch Muslims find him a uh an unpleasant frightening figure um what will that do to the relationship relations between Dutch Muslims and how they feel about the Netherlands and how they feel about Dutch people because you can imagine I would have thought just looking in from the outside that it's inevitable that Dutch Muslims would take that deeply personally and perhaps not even feel welcome in their own country uh correct uh we are because the the problem is actually it is not that the he gets at 37 uh City yeah but uh the problem is that uh uh 53% uh of Dutch people once he comes uh prime minister I am afraid from that UHA yeah and all the Dutch people just looking they did in 45 for the Jewish people it's the same and I think this the the the history is uh uh how do we say uh repeating repeating it you feel that strongly you feel I I feel exactly I I hear some some far right people is uh about age of 20 25 years old they saying sometime go to your home and I am actually more Dutch than that people because I am longer in the Netherlands than them but I cannot go anywhere especially my children they can't go this is this is our [Music] country so one of the things I'm most struck by in terms of being here is actually maybe Israel Gaza aside just how uncharged the politics seems to be at the moment in the sense that you compare it to say what the US was like in the aftermath of trump aftermath of brexit other elections where there's been a really surprising result actually there doesn't seem to be that much backlash towards vas from the sort of quarters that you would expect kind of liberal opinion and I think there are two reasons for that one Dutch voters seem to have a lot of faith in the system to kind of tame him to contain him well recent and not so recent history kind of suggest sometimes that that is not always an assumption which is's born out but also I think it is even more about the fact that vas as a man and also the sort of politics that he has that he espouses has become mainstream it's become normalized politics has moved toward him in so many senses in terms of his relative political position he's not far right he's mainstream right some of the big main parties made a bit of a strategic error in the way that they treated Wilders um in terms of letting him Focus the debates on immigration on issues which he was strongest on uh and also by making clear during the campaign that they'd be willing to consider going into coalition government with him which made it a lot more palatable to vote for him and made it seem like voting for him wasn't a waste in the way that it might have been in the past the normalization has happened everywhere because a transformation has happened on the center right the breakdown of what used to be called The Cordon sanit a refusal to work with the radical right or far right forces has happened in most places in Europe but it's more than that often the old center right parties have simply become combined with or at least often aped what they used to oppose well that's definitely one of the reasons he did so well I think is um after almost 25 years of campaigning daily on against immigration against Islam saying he would ban the Quran and close down mosques and so on in just the last two or three weeks of the campaign he quite suddenly pivoted to taking a much gentler line um since the election he said that those issues he's put in the fridge and he's not going to discuss them anymore um others have pointed out if you put put things in the fridge it's because you want to keep them fresh to use them again later but um he certainly well in this country people called him uh Builders and then milders so a bit like saying he used to be wilder and now he's milder there was a twin process going on which is that mainstream quote unquote center right parties were moving towards him yes I think that's right they've kind of converged on what might be fairly rightwing but more Cent position than what Wilders would normally take and that's created the space for him to potentially put together a government with other parties on the right of the spectrum what many of the Central right parties have done in the last couple of decades even um across Europe so not only in the Netherlands but in many different countries is that they have Incorporated elements of the ideas of the far ride in their own discourse they have moved towards the far right to quite some extent and there is a lot of research showing that that is indeed the case in particular when it comes to an issue such as immigration um so these parties have moved into their Direction and thereby they have legitimized policies of the far right in country after country what we're seeing is a new normal on the right a fusion which is often governed by the more nativist instincts of the old far right than the consiliary liberal ones of the old Center thus normalization happens buffeted by crisis and a political Center which seems to have little to say or to offer to voters what would have once seemed extraordinary no longer does but it's not just High politics where the weight of the extremes is leening from The River To The Sea will be free you we as polarization was already worsening in city after city across Europe we pour the gasoline of the Gaz of War free free free free free free free free and we see on the left and the right the power of conspiracy of hatred Rising that's very wrong to say it's HMK because people everyone here is is here for one thing is for peace uh we're not advocating violence we're not advocating Terror we're advocating peace and humanity and this is why we're here today but there are some people who Jews in particular who find this very scary uh they shouldn't do they should be solidarity with us I believe and most of the Jews are and unfortunately their their voice is not being um heard because the Jewish media is is keeping that quiet too so what do you mean the Jewish media what do you mean the the media from um the the bias side say like the BBC and all that they've said many things but there's no documented evidence no evidence of what no evidence of what the terrorism didn't happen Zion people say we can rule the war the the world is for for us and the rest is slaves what do you what do you think about vas apart from being an actor is a faker you think he a do you think is a fascist no no I don't use this word because uh many people they they say when you say fascist is the same as Nationalist and this is for me a big difference but he's for me not a fascist and I I don't use this word at all because people don't even know what it means nowadays I don't you think he is a a puppet a puppet all of Puppets most politicians are working for multinationals working for the shadow government they get paid uh uh indirectly directly by dark Forces so yeah we have to expose them and you think specifically he's your he's maybe is a mosad agent yeah he's trained you think V is a mosad agent could be could be yeah could be seems a bit outlandish doesn't it no I'm used to talk about these topics I I know this for many years so for me it's normal and into this void as ethnic tensions have risen steps the grass roots of the far right the sort of people that you would expect move back move back get back you get [Music] back so many of the people here I do not find myself in a situation where I am thinking in primary colors when I am thinking in binary in so many ways I leave here more confused than I was when I came in in terms of exactly I think about these marches about exactly how they interplay and fuse with wider discussions around anti-Semitism around Israel and Gaza one thing where I am absolutely certain though is that at a time when this debate is becoming more and more binary is becoming more and more polarized of all people our politicians have to be judicious in the language that they use because right now week after week in Britain this issue is feeling more and more like a powder keg ready to blow and if politics Ians are adding ammunition adding fuel to that powder Kake then I don't know where we're going to end up in all times of Crisis we see the farri right mobilize and try to take advantage of the new cycle in order to push their existing agendas so right we sort around the covid lockdowns when there were huge mobilizations and a spread of conspiracy theories and a real burgeoning of that movement we've seen that again since the October 7th attack we've seen a huge rise we've been able to evidence a rise in anti-muslim hatred and anti-Semitism online and also offline right we've seen a huge spike in incidents particularly in London the M police recorded a 1300% increase in anti-semitic incidents and so we have this context where we have increased polarization an increase in disinformation misinformation online and conspiracy theories and an environment where communities feel increasingly scared increasingly concerned about the riseing hate towards them and all of this creates the kind of environment where people take advantage of this element of fear in order to push their agendas and and promote what we believe to be forms of hatred throw in new forms of technology which allow conspiracy and Mis information to spread like wildfire as we saw on the streets of Dublin just a few weeks ago and before we know where we are we have riots and don't underestimate the extent to which online conspiracy videos are moving the overall debate however subtly legitimating their radical ideas we've seen over previous years for example how the conspiracy theory around the great replacement so the idea that there is this kind of perceived invading force of Muslim individuals coming and trying to destroy British culture as the conspiracy theory goes take our place literally take our place exactly we've seen that conspiracy theory grow and be normalized on on different forms of media um in different political parties and that's not always using the very overtly harmful language which white supremacist or neo-nazis might do it's using language which is kind of repackaged as accessible for the public in order to gain track action among communities who wouldn't consider themselves to otherwise be extremist or racist politicians have to respond to public concerns which are completely legitimate they also have to be wary about the language they use and aware of the Seas they're swimming in of how much of our public debate has been reared how the center of our politics has shifted how crisis and Technology are forging a new set of forces in our politics forces which don't share the assumptions of those who governed most of the post-war order these forces could have profound consequences for climate the EU Ukraine immigration community relations the sort of countries we live in if traditional liberal democracy still so young deserve to survive someone has to speak for it who right now really is the news agents this is a global player original [Music] podcast

Channel: The News Agents

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Length: 22min 53sec (1373 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 22 2023