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Palestine Today · 2017-05-20
A report on a seminar organised in Gaza by PalThink with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation on the rise of right-wing parties in Europe and their impact on the Middle East, with Dr Werner Puschra as speaker. Shaban moderated the discussion and translated the guest's main points for the audience.
### During a seminar organized by PalThink Center, Dr. Werner Puschra
### During a seminar organized by PalThink Center, Dr. Werner Puschra
A report: European right-wing positions are fluctuating toward Israel and are united in hostility to Islam
Dr. Werner Puschra, Director of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in “Israel,” said that right-wing parties continue to rise in Europe as a result of fears of economic decline following large waves of migration and the unequal capacities among European Union countries.
Dr. Puschra explained that the positions of European right-wing parties toward “Israel” are fluctuating; they court it in order to win voters’ support, and regard it as a democratic model for dealing with Arabs and Muslims, but they all agree in their hostility toward Islam and Muslims.
Dr. Puschra made these remarks during a seminar organized by PalThink for Strategic Studies in cooperation with the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation under the title: The Rise of Right-Wing Parties in Europe and Its Impact on the Middle East, on Wednesday in Gaza City, in the presence of the representative of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Jerusalem, Dr. Bahan, and its representative in Gaza, Dr. Osama Antar, while the discussion was moderated by PalThink Director Mr. Omar Shaban, who provided a translation of the guest’s main remarks.
Dr. Puschra distinguished between two types of right-wing parties in Europe: a populist right that believes in collective joint action, does not aim to overthrow the state, and carries grassroots popular demands that support the majority and call for limiting the presence and rights of minorities, exploiting these demands to reach power; and, on the other hand, the far right, which tends more toward individualism and is more hardline regarding the state and issues of unity and migration, rejecting the values of pluralism and cultural diversity, though it has fewer chances than populist right-wing parties. He explained that right-wing parties are more racist in favor of the blond European and exclude others on the basis that the European race is superior to the rest of humanity.
He attributed the reasons for the rise of right-wing parties to economic decline and increasing unemployment rates as a result of unprecedented migration waves after events in the Middle East, especially in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, and in the countries that experienced the events of the Arab Spring, which increased Europeans’ fears and growing anxiety.
He explained with figures that right-wing parties are growing in all the more distant European countries, but this is not as noticeable as it is in France, Germany, and the Netherlands, because of their distance from the Middle East and because they are not central countries in international influence.
Dr. Puschra revealed that the Greek crisis showed the weakness of the sense of solidarity among European Union countries and the absence of emotional and sentimental unity, especially after the wealthy and productive countries refused to help it, arguing that countries that work should not assist those that do not.
He indicated that populist right-wing parties benefited from social media and modern media in reaching citizens, influencing them, and attacking traditional parties, which appeared to be in an ineffective defensive position in using modern means of communication.
Dr. Puschra described the relationship of right-wing parties as unclear toward Israel, considering it to fall within the category of the other (non-European), and said the fluctuation in the relationship appears clearly in the issue of anti-Semitism, as happened in the incident of preventing the German Vice President from delivering a speech in Israel on charges of anti-Semitism, or the expulsion of Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of French candidate Marine Le Pen, from the party after his repeated sharp, racist, and anti-Semitic statements.
He noted the improvement in relations between “Israel” and the Netherlands after the entry of Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Lieberman, who officially received Dutch Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders in Israel.
Dr. Puschra stressed that European peoples reject the phenomenon of the rise of the right, and citizens in Austria expressed this by taking to the streets in demonstrations to bring down a right-wing government. He noted that the social incubator of right-wing parties has grown as a result of fear of economic crises, rising migration rates, increasing unemployment, and concern over the dilution of the European element among migrants.
The audience interacted with the guest, Dr. Puschra, who served as head of the Foundation’s department in South Africa, America, and Egypt, and now runs the Foundation’s branch in Tel Aviv. Attendees posed a number of questions about the rise of right-wing parties and their positions in Europe, guided by election results, opinion polls, and important statements by some leaders of right-wing parties.
Text © Palestine Today — archived here with attribution to the source. — Machine translation for archival reference. — Original source