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EUROPE

Right-wing ideology on march across the continent

Bruno Waterfield
|
David Charter
, Berlin
The Times
There has been a sharp rise in far-right parties focused­ on an anti-immigrant agenda
There has been a sharp rise in far-right parties focused­ on an anti-immigrant agenda
JENS MEYER/AP
Bruno Waterfield
|
David Charter
, Berlin
The Times

Germany gave warning that the rise of far-right parties threatened to plunge the world into conflict and recession and that extreme nationalists were trying to capitalise on the migrant crisis.

The rise of Europe’s far right has become­ an issue in Britain’s referendum after Michael Gove, the justice secretary, warned that growing resentment­ at EU policies was driving the wave of extremism. Mr Gove toldThe Sunday­ Times that “the far right is stronger across the continent at any time since the 1930s”.

Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the German Social Democrats, compared ­Donald Trump’s victories in US presidential primaries to the rise of Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France and Geert Wilders­, the Dutch far-right leader. “All these right-wing populists are not only a threat to peace and social cohesion­ but also to economic development,” Mr Gabriel told the newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

Angela Merkel, German chancellor, condemned the anti-immigrant party the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as she tried to salvage her own party’s hopes in three state elections next ­Sunday. “The AfD is a party that is stirring up prejudice­ and polarising,” she told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

The AfD was founded three years ago as an anti-euro party. Its popularity soared after it changed leader and focused­ on an anti-immigrant agenda. It is set to do well in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt and match the ruling Social Democratic party in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, according to the latest polls.

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Its co-leader Frauke Petry, 40, a mother of four with a degree from Reading University, has denied that her party is on the far right. “The CDU used to be a right-wing democratic party until they started to shift towards the Social Democrats, leaving much space between the CDU and the extreme right,” she said. “As a new party we take up positions once taken by the CDU.”

Far-right parties have become the main opposition in France and the Netherlands. Slovakian elections on Saturday failed to produce a clear result and the People’s Party — Our Slovakia took 8 per cent of the vote.

Robert Fico, Slovakia’s left-wing prime minister, must try to form a coalition from an array of fractious smaller nationalist­ parties. Marian Kotleba, leader of the People’s party, is an unashamed defender of Slovakia’s Second World War role as a puppet state of Nazi Germany.