Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian
The Nordic countries have long been considered a part of Europe where people support progressive and social democratic parties committed to the preservation of the welfare state.
However, as elsewhere in Europe, these nations have in recent years seen the rise of right-wing populist and anti-immigrant parties.
The Danish People’s Party (DF), Finns Party (PS), the Progress Party of Norway (FrP), and the Sweden Democrats (SD) have all become significant forces in their respective countries.
These states have proportional election systems with low vote thresholds for gaining seats (four per cent in Norway and Sweden; two per cent in Denmark; none in Finland) and a strong tradition of minority coalitions. All this has helped radical parties gain a foothold in their political systems.
In Denmark, the DF emerged out of an anti-tax movement and assumed its present form in 1995, as the issue of immigration began to dominate Danish politics. It first participated in elections in 1998 and immediately won 7.4 per cent of the vote.
In 2012, Kristian Thulesen Dahl became the party leader and succeeded in enhancing the party’s image. By 2015 it had almost tripled that initial result, with 21.1 percent. With 37 of 179 seats, it became the second-biggest parliamentary group.
In Norway, the FrP, founded in 1973, also initially developed as an anti-tax movement and was very similar to the DF in its ideology. It gained a double-digit election result – 13 per cent -- for the first time in 1989.
The FrP has recently tried to improve its image and distance itself from racism. Since 2013, when it garnered 16.3 per cent and 29 of 169 seats in parliament, good for third place, it has been included in a government coalition under the conservative Hoyre Party.
A successor to the openly fascist Sweden Party, the SD, founded in 1988, presented itself as a ethnic-nationalist, Euro-sceptic movement.
It entered the Swedish parliament for the first time in 2010, with a vote of 5.7 per cent. It doubled that number in 2014, with 12.9 per cent, taking 49 of 349 seats and becoming the third-largest party.
To present a more moderate face, it has expelled more than 100 openly racist party members since 2012. Sweden’s other parties have denied the SD any voice in government, but some centre-right politicians have become more open to the idea of a possible coalition with them.
In Finland, the PS was established in 1995 and is the successor to the now-defunct populist Finnish Rural Party. Fiscally centre-left but socially conservative, it sees itself as the defender of the national culture.
It remained marginal until its electoral breakthrough in 2011, when it won 19.8 per cent of the balloting.
Though the party’s share of the vote fell to 17.7 per cent in 2015, it nonetheless became the second-biggest group in the legislature, with 38 of 200 seats, and part of a tripartite centre-right governing coalition, whose rhetoric on immigration has become stronger.
These anti-immigrant, populist parties have gained further support since some 250,000 refugees entered the Nordic countries in 2015, including a record 163,000 in Sweden.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, a Social Democrat, has tightened asylum rules and border controls.
In Denmark the DF has even attracted disgruntled Social Democrats. So last January a bill tightening immigration laws, including the confiscation of refugees’ valuables passed with overwhelming support.
In Norway, a few months after a number of immigration reforms were instituted aimed at making it a less attractive destination for refugees and migrants, the number of asylum seekers dropped precipitously.
Prior to last year’s election, the PS website stated that Finland “should take care of the Finns first.”
Throughout northern Europe, the larger issue is the growing unwillingness to subsidise those seen as the foreign poor.
No comments:
Post a Comment