Viktor Orban’s landslide electoral victory on Sunday, gaining 134 seats out of 199 in Hungary’s parliament, increases his governing supermajority and endorses his tough policy of excluding illegal immigrants, especially from the Middle East. His success dramatises a new reality across Europe and in Australia: a novel kind of party has emerged, disturbing the political scene and arousing impassioned debate.
Examples of this phenomenon include the other three members of the Visegrad group (Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia) as well as Austria’s four-month-old government. Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom in The Netherlands, sees western Europe following the Visegrad group: “In the eastern part of Europe, anti-Islamification and anti-mass migration parties see a surge in popular support. Resistance is growing in the West as well.”
In France, the National Front emerged as the second strongest party in last year’s presidential elections; in Italy, a muddled situation could lead to an Orban-like government; while Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation have made their mark on the Australian scene. Indeed, like-minded parties have quickly become a significant force in 20 countries.
An initial problem is how correctly to name them in general. The media lazily lumps these parties together as far-right, ignoring their frequent leftist elements, especially in economic and social policy. Calling them nationalist is wrong, for they neither bellow calls to arms nor raise claims to neighbours’ lands. Populist misses the point because plenty of populist parties such as La France Insoumise (Rebellious France) pursue nearly opposite policies.
Best is to focus on their key common elements: rejecting the vast influx of immigrants, especially Muslim immigrants, to Europe. Non-Muslim immigrants also cause strains, especially those from Africa, but only among Muslims does one find a program, the Islamist one, to replace Western civilisation with a radically different way of life.
Read the article by Daniel Pipes in The Australian (subscription required).