Right-Wing Tide Threatens EU

We came across this alarming article in The American Prospect that describes the threat to the European Union of rising nationalistic and right-wing movements in Europe. Some former satellites of the Soviet Union have been the most susceptible to calls for more authoritarian rule, and rejection of European unity.  The right-wing governments of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic were elected in response to public alarm over the continent's debt crisis, the upswing in terrroism and the influx of refugees from the Middle East. Most notably in Hungary, the government has imposed limitations on speech and protection of ethnic minorities. Ominously, some radical right-wingers in Hungary have pressed for the registration of Jews, who they consider a potential threat to their society.

While the trend is most acute in Eastern Europe, it's not confined there. In France, Sweden and Denmark, "populist" right-wing parties have made significant gains in their countries' legislatures; in Sweden, the largest single party is a far-right organization with neo-Nazi roots. In Germany, the far-right, anti-EU AfD party scored 24% of the vote in regional elections.

Much of the problems rest with the debt crisis of the last seven years, which has caused misguided austerity measures against debtor nations, and prompted social and economic unrest throughout the continent as several nations have sought to isolate themselves. Calls for "nationalism" fall on fertile ground when other nations appear to be siphoning national wealth away.  But it's the austerity measures adopted by the vast majority of the EU nations that have backfired; investments in infrastructure, technology and education were disregarded.

Much like the teabagger radicals here in the U.S., the European nationalists' response to an economic recession was austerity: cut spending (except for military expenses) and social programs. It's now resulting in increased fragmentation of Europe's grand experiment of 40 years in the making.