How Racism Threatens European Democracy

By Floris Cooijmans

The recent victory of Geert Wilders’ PVV (Party for Freedom) in the Dutch general election stunned many, both in the Netherlands and across Europe. Looking at the bigger picture, however, it may not be so surprising after all.

Wilders’ victory is the latest in a series of election victories for far-right parties in Europe. No longer a fringe phenomenon, far-right parties have in recent years managed to win elections and have even been able to form coalition governments in Sweden, Finland and Italy. In others, such as Hungary, far-right parties have been in power for a considerable time now. The latest general election in Poland ended the reign of the PiS party, the far-right party which had been in charge for eight years. Even in Germany, a country where past experiences with political extremism still impact the perception of these types of political movements, the far-right AfD is reaching record highs in the polls.

The core of Wilders’ platform is discrimination. Refugees, Muslims and (children of) immigrants, some of whom have been in the Netherlands for decades, are all bundled together and made responsible for most, if not all, that is wrong with the country.

This core platform of discrimination is shared by far-right parties across Europe, and policies of scapegoating minorities and blaming them for policy failures of various governments has become a common tactic of far-right parties.

As an example, in this Dutch election (November 2023), Wilders managed to connect the national housing shortage to immigration, omitting the fact that this shortage is deeply connected to housing policy failure such as excessive housing market liberalisation, and a decline in the construction rate of affordable housing. Furthermore, other societal trends, such as the decreasing average size of Dutch households, which is beyond the governments (direct) control, have not been properly anticipated in housing policy. Like other far-right parties, Wilders seems to prefer simple narratives rather than acknowledging that these issues are long-term policy failures first and foremost and are not solved as soon as the immigration stop which he desires would be put in place.

Linking as many policy areas as possible to migration is in Wilder’s interest. His party has so called ‘’issue ownership’’ in this area, as most voters associate his party with this issue. Polling after the election shows that the main driver for people to vote for Wilders’ party were concerns about immigration. But as the housing market example shows, the discriminatory agenda of parties such as Wilders’ bleeds into other policy areas too. Many of Wilders’ proposals, such as a ban on Mosques and Qurans or a complete moratorium on taking in asylum seekers go directly against the Dutch constitution, EU legislation and international treaties to which the Netherlands is party.

It is by now a familiar pattern. Far-right parties win elections on a platform of discrimination, and once in power hollow the rule of law out from the inside to their own advantage. Recent examples of this in the EU include critical journalists getting gagged, government friendly judges getting installed and electoral law being changed in such a way that the opposition will have a harder time contesting elections.

But that is not where they stop. As far-right governments in Poland, Hungary and Italy have shown, these parties do not limit themselves to passing legislation which discriminates based on race or religion. They also attack LGBTQ+ and women’s rights head on.

Repairing the damage the far-right does to institutions is a long process, so prevention is better than cure. However, what does prevention look like?

A key part of this cure lies in anti-racist education. One of the reasons these parties can attract such a large percentage of the electorate, is because their racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric resonates with the population. If we manage to instil in people genuine appreciation for diversity and a sense of social justice, far-right parties would not be able to exploit those anxieties for their own electoral gain. They would be recognised for what they are: parties with an agenda of hatred.

As with climate change, the costs of doing nothing far exceed the costs of doing something about it now. The longer these discriminatory sentiments simmer in society, the longer far-right parties can use them to win elections and in turn undermine democracy itself.

The last Europe-wide wave of anti-racism protests took place in 2020 and were part of the global Black Lives Matter movement. In wake of these protests, some public statues were removed, streets were renamed, official apologies for involvement in slavery and colonialism were issued by governments and a number of looted artefacts have been returned to their rightful owners.

While these actions are small steps in the right direction, they fail to tackle the root of the protests. These largely symbolic gestures were often merely good PR for (local) governments and sometimes even executed without consulting relevant groups. It tried to show the protesters that they were being taken seriously, without tackling the heart of the issue: racism in European societies.

Multiculturalism is the supposed cornerstone of the EU. "United in diversity” is even its official motto. Yet, this sentiment is radically challenged by the intolerance present in our societies towards people of colour and people of non-Christian faiths.

Far-right parties love to point out crime statistics which show that people with a migration background are more likely to commit certain crimes. What they don’t disclose is that the causality does not lie in ethnicity, but rather in social conditions, such as poverty and unemployment, which people with a migration background are more likely to be in, partly because of racist attitudes in society at large, which results in them having worse career-prospects than their peers.

When helping people develop the tools to challenge their negative attitudes and prejudices towards minority groups they might not fall into the far-right trap of scapegoat politics. Far- right party’s most successful electoral strategy becoming less effective will mean they will have to find different, hopefully more democratic methods of attracting voters, this in turn weakens the anti-democratic agenda they would bring to the table if they were to gain power.

Fighting racism should be a top priority for the EU and all member states. Not just because it is the just thing to do, but rather because the democratic future of the EU depends on it.

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