The new frontlines of right-wing nationalism

Abstract

Recent years have been characterized by efforts from political parties and movements to create a Nationalist International in order to counter the alleged destruction of their communities by global developments and trends. Increasingly, nationalists conceive of the solutions for their own problems on a global scale. This nationalist push to unify efforts is particularly, albeit not exclusively, visible within the context of the European Union. The article will describe and analyse the major developments of the nationalist transnational network and its potential and flaws, as well as the network figures, organizations, resources and repertoire, while calling for a cognitive change in the study of nationalism, especially its extreme-right variant.

Notes

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^2. Earliest European nationalisms had a transnational dimension, e.g. in the project of Giuseppe Mazzini (an international ‘brotherhood’ of peoples). This historical part, however, is outside the scope of this article.

^3. Michael Arthur Ledeen, Universal Fascism: The Theory and Practice of the Fascist International, 1928–1936 (New York: Howard Fertig, 1972), pp. 114–118; Arnd Bauerkämper, ‘Interwar fascism in Europe and beyond: toward a transnational radical right”, in Martin Durham and Margaret Power (Eds) New Perspectives on the Transnational Right (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 39–66.

^4. Asvero Gravelli, Verso L'internazionale fascista (Roma: Libreria Editrice, 1932), p. 224.

^5. This study does not focus on the New Right—which emerged out of the cultural milieu of European neo-fascism—and its several ramifications in contemporary Europe. Although decidedly transnational since its beginnings, this school of thought is in essence post-nationalist, and imperialistic, rejecting for the most part nation-states. My focus instead, as the title indicates, is on contemporary right-wing nationalism and its variations. On the Transnationalism of the New Right see Tamir Bar-On, ‘Transnationalism and the French Nouvelle Droite’, Patterns of Prejudice, 45(3) (2011), pp. 199–223.

^6. Oswald Mosley, My Life (London: Nelson, 1968), p. 435.

^7. Jeffrey Kaplan and Leonard Weinberg, The Emergence of a Euro-American Radical Right (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998); Stuart A. Wright, ‘Strategic framing of racial-nationalism in North America and Europe: an analysis of a burgeoning transnational network’, Terrorism and Political Violence, 21(2) (2009), pp. 189–210; Raphael Schlembach, ‘The transnationality of European nationalist movements’, Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, 89 (2011), pp. 1331–1350; Thomas Grumke, ‘Globalized anti-globalists: the ideological basis of the internationalization of right-wing extremism’, in Uwe Backes and Patrick Moreau (Eds) The Extreme Right in Europe: Current Trends and Perspectives (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012), pp. 323–332.

^8. Toby Archer, ‘Learning to love the Jews: the impact of the War on Terror and the counter-jihad blogosphere on European far right parties’, Paper presented at the XV NOPSA Conference, Tromsø, 8 August 2008; Matthew Goodwin, The Roots of Extremism: The English Defence League and the Counter-Jihad Challenge (London: Chatham House, 2013); José Pedro Zúquete, ‘The resurrection of Charles Martel: counter-jihadism in the West’, in Jason Lee and Andrew Wilson (Eds) Extremism, Nationalism and Transgression (New York: Bloomsbury, forthcoming).

^9. Sabine von Mering and Timothy Wyman McCarty, ‘Introduction’, in Sabine von Mering and Timothy Wyman McCarty (Eds) Right-Wing Radicalism Today: Perspectives from Europe and the US (London: Routledge, 2013), pp. 1–12.

^10. Larissa Remennick, ‘Transnationalism’, in George Ritzer (Ed.) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, vol. 10 (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007), p. 5064; Rainer Bauböck and Thomas Faist, ‘Preface’ in Rainer Bauböck and Thomas Faist (Eds) Diaspora and Transnationalism: Concepts, Theories and Methods (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2010), p. 8.

^11. Steven Vertovec, Transnationalism (New York: Routledge, 2009), p. 29.

^12. Charles Tilly, Social Movements: 1768–2004 (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2004), p. 114; Jackie Smith, ‘Transnational movements’, in Ritzer (Ed.), op. cit., Ref. 10, p. 5061.

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^19. National-Hebdo, ibid., pp. 4–6.

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^22. David Hanley, Beyond the Nation State: Parties in the Era of European Integration (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), p. 201.

^23. EuroNat; See Charles Lindholm and José Pedro Zúquete, The Struggle for the World: Liberation Movements for the 21st Century (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010), pp. 81–82.

^24. Vejvodová, op. cit., Ref. 9, p. 218.

^25. ENF; See Charles Lindholm and José Pedro Zúquete, op. cit., Ref. 23, pp. 81–82.

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^29. Almeida, op. cit., Ref. 9, pp. 237–239; Vejvodová, op. cit., Ref. 9, pp. 216–217.

^30. Militer au Front, op. cit., Ref. 14, p. 34; Mudde, op. cit., Ref. 1, p. 177.

^31. Mudde, op. cit., Ref. 1, p. 180.

^32. ITS—Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty.

^33. Almeida, op. cit., Ref. 9, p. 246.

^34. Devashree Gupta, ‘Nationalism across borders: transnational nationalist advocacy in the European Union’, Comparative European Politics, 6 (2008), pp. 61–80.

^35. DW—Deutsche Welle, ‘Right-wing leaders to form a European “patriotic” party’, 26 January 2008.

^36. EAF—European Alliance for Freedom, Statutes (2011) [online], available at http://www.eurallfree.org/?q = node/72 (accessed 1 February 2013).

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^39. AENM, Documenti (2012) [online], available at: http://aemn.it/documenti.htm (accessed 30 January 2013); Steven L. Bennett, ‘Neuropa 2.0: Jobbik, AENM, and the nationalist alternative model to European integration’, Paper presented at the European Union and World Politics Conference, SUNY, Buffalo, 5–6 October 2012.

^40. European Voice, ‘MEPs want to stop EU funds reaching far-right parties’, April 2012 [online], available at http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/meps-want-to-stop-eu-funds-reaching-far-right-parties/74049.aspx (accessed 30 January 2013).

^41. Bruno Gollnisch, ‘Entrevista’, O Diabo, 26 December 2012, pp. 8–9.

^42. Bruno Gollnisch, ‘Testo dell “Intervento”’, Milan, 7 July 2012 [online], available at http://www.aemn.it/ (accessed 30 January 2013).

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^45. See the AENM official website here: http://aemn.eu (accessed 28 August 2013).

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^48. On this issue see also Nathalie Brack, L'euroscepticisme au sein du parlement européen (Bruxelles: Larcier, 2014), pp. 170–203.

^49. Vejvodová, op. cit., Ref. 9, pp. 224–225.

^50. Matthew Goodwin, Vidhya Ramalingam and Rachel Briggs, The New Radical Right: Violent and Non-Violent Movements in Europe (London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2012), p. 25; Laurenz Ennser, ‘The homogeneity of West European party families: the radical right in comparative perspective’, Party Politics, 18(2) (2012), pp. 167–168.

^51. Le Monde, ‘Les relations ambiguës du FN et du Jobbik hongrois’, 4 January 2012.

^52. Tribuna de Europa, 4 January 2014 [online], available at http://www.tribunadeeuropa.com/?p = 18105 (accessed 6 June 2014).

^53. Ken Ekeroth, E-mail communication, 18 January 2013.

^54. Joost van Spanje, ‘The wrong and the right: a comparative analysis of “anti-immigration” and “far right” parties’, Government and Opposition, 46(3) (2011), p. 298.

^55. ‘I don't think the Front National is a decent party’, said Søren Espersen, the Danish People's party deputy leader, 13 November 2013 [online], available at http://politiken.dk/indland/politik/ECE2131262/strid-df-i-chok-over-svensk-soesterparti/ (accessed 6 June 2014).

^56. El Mundo, 26 March 2014 [online], available at http://www.elmundo.es/internacional/2014/03/25/5331f11d268e3e7b688b457d.html (accessed 6 June 2014).

^57. Márton Gyöngyösi, The Budapest Times, 22 February 2014 [online], available at http://budapesttimes.hu/2014/02/22/jobbik-to-wilders-and-le-pen-liberalism-and-zionism-are-the-enemies-not-islam/ (accessed 6 June 2014).

^58. Atlantic Sentinel, ‘Dutch, French nationalists to jointly contest European elections’, 2 July 2013 [online], available at http://atlanticsentinel.com/2013/07/dutch-french-nationalists-to-jointly-contest-european-elections/ (accessed 25 October 2013).

^59. Geert Wilders, ‘The resurgence of national pride and the future of Europe’, 9 June 2013 [online], available at http://www.geertwilders.nl/index.php/in-de-media-mainmenu-74/nieuws-mainmenu-114/1829-speech-geert-wilders-los-angeles-june-9-2013 (accessed 25 October 2013).

^60. Adam K. Webb, Beyond the Global Culture War (New York: Routledge, 2006), pp. 135, 159; Manfred Steger, The Rise of the Global Imaginary: Political Ideologies from the French Revolution to the Global War on Terror (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 217.

^61. Ronaldo Munck, Globalization and Contestation: The New Great Counter-Movement (London: Routledge, 2007), p. 113.

^62. Thomas Faist, ‘Diaspora and transnationalism: what kind of dance partners?’ in Bauböck and Faist (Eds), op. cit., Ref. 10, p. 13.

^63. Andrea Mammone, Emmanuel Godin and Brian Jenkins, ‘Introduction: mapping the “right of the mainstream right” in contemporary Europe’, in Andrea Mammone, Emmanuel Godin and Brian Jenkins (Eds) Mapping the Extreme Right in Contemporary Europe: From Local to Transnational (New York: Routledge, 2012), p. 5.

^64. Paul Kennedy, Local Lives and Global Transformations: Towards World Society (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 36–38.

^65. Paul Routledge and Andrews Cumbers, Global Justice Networks: Geographies of Transnational Solidarity (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009), p. 207.

^66. Smith, op. cit., Ref. 12, p. 5062.

^67. For a recent exception see Graham Macklin, ‘Transnational networking on the far right: the case of Britain and Germany’, West European Politics, 36(1) (2013), pp. 176–198.

^68. Sidney Tarrow, The New Transnational Activism, reprint (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 29, 43.

^69. Thomas Olesen, ‘Conclusion: transnational counter-publics and democracy’, in Thomas Olesen (Ed.), Power and Transnational Activism (New York: Routledge, 2011), pp. 251–261.

^70. Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2000), p. 27.

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^73. Daniel Chernilo ‘Social theory's methodological nationalism’, European Journal of Social Theory, 9(1) (2006), p. 6.

^74. Sarah Danielsson, ‘Pan-nationalism reframed: nationalism, “diaspora”, the role of the “nation-state” and the global age’, in Daphne Halikiopoulou and Sofia Vasilopoulou (Eds) Nationalism and Globalization: Conflicting or Complementary? (New York: Routledge, 2011), p. 43.

^75. Shmuel Eisenstadt, ‘Neo transnational communities and networks: globalization changes in civilizational frameworks’, in Eliezer Ben-Rafael and Yitzhak Sternberg (Eds) Transnationalism: Diasporas and the Advent of a New (Dis) Order (Leiden: Brill, 2009), pp. 35, 37.

^76. Op. cit., Ref. 35.

^77. See, for example, Cas Mudde, ‘The Le Pen-Wilders alliance and the European parliament: plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose’, 11 February 2014 [online], available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/02/11/the-le-pen-wilders-alliance-and-the-european-parliament-plus-ca-change-plus-cest-la-meme/ (accessed 6 June 2014).

^78. This point has been made brilliantly by Benjamin Arditi in his work on political insurgencies; See Benjamin Arditi, ‘Insurgencies don't have a plan – they are the plan: political performatives and vanishing mediators in 2011’, JOMEC: Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, 1(1) (2012), pp. 1–16.

^79. Christina Schori Liang, ‘Europe for the Europeans: the foreign and security policy of the populist radical right’, in Christina Schori Liang (Ed.) Europe for the Europeans: The Foreign and Security Policy of the Populist Radical Right (London: Ashgate, 2007), p. 27.

^80. Bauerkämper, ‘Interwar fascism’, in Durham and Power (Eds), op. cit., Ref. 3, p. 57.