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European Nationalism, What Could Go Wrong?

My fellow Americans, it’s time to start paying attention to world affairs.

March 15th was the Dutch Parliamentary election day, where votes were cast for members of the 150 seat assembly. If you aren’t aware, the populist and nationalist platform that Trump ran on is not currently US exclusive, Netherland’s Geert Wilders also utilized the same tactics.

Wilders is the founder of the Party for Freedom (PVV), a right-wing political party that espouses anti-Islam, anti-immigration, and anti-EU rhetoric.  The PVV calls for closed Dutch borders, the immediate removal of the Netherlands from the EU, a ban on Islamic head scarves in public, the prohibition of the Koran, and an ethnicity record of Dutch citizens to name a few of their policies. Wilders himself has been referred to as a Dutch Donald Trump who plays on race and religious lines to create and an “us versus them” mentality.

Wilders was not able to oust Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, but his party still came in second, winning 19 seats in the Dutch Parliament. This is good news, however, considering that the PVV was projected to possibly win the most seats, it does by no means spell the defeat of Dutch populism.

Lately, in Europe as well as in the US, politicians have taken to the motto “when things go low, we go right.” In 2016, Austria’s Freedom Party won 35.1% of the vote, a nearly 15 percent gain from 2013, where they only won 20.5% of the vote. Their official motto is “Austria first” which should sound familiar to most Americans. In Poland, the right-wing Law and Order Party won 39% of the vote. The party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has taken control and his policies include tightening control over media and restricting public gatherings.

Many other countries including Sweden, Britain, Greece, Switzerland, Bulgaria, and Hungary have experienced a rise in right-wing power.

Soon Germany and France will hold elections. Both countries have far-right parties emerging in popularity; Front National (France) and Alternative for Germany (Germany). France’s Front National party is headed by the infamous Marine Le Pen, who is known primarily for being nationalistic and xenophobic. While it’s more likely that Front National will succeed politically, Alternative for Germany’s rise in popularity is still a worrying development.

Europe has recently been hit with a wave of malaise, which right-wingers are blaming on immigrants and the decline of European powers. It’s important to remember that nationalism and xenophobia have a sordid history on the European continent. The promises of populism and nationalism in uneasy times seems appealing, but Europe should tread carefully considering their history with right-wing politics. The World War 2 level of German nationalism did not happen overnight; it grew in popularity over time as the German people felt more and more disenfranchised due to tough post-war times. History doesn’t repeat, it rhymes, and some trends are too overwhelming to ignore.

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