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Date:         Wed, 18 Nov 1992 09:38:25 MET
From:         George Welling <welling@FREYA.LET.RUG.NL>
Subject:      Re: My posting about German fascist strife.
              17, 92 9:29 am

>
>
> Well, there is the small, often overlooked issue of the
>  German history btw 1933 and 1945.  Thus, the resurgence of
>  fascism in Germany causes me more concern than skinheads here in London.
>  On the matter of the numbers being "ridiculous", again I'm not so sure...
>
Fascism and neo-nazism have never been away since WWII, but it has always been
restricted to a very limited group of fanatics. At the moment we see a
resurgence of the ultra-right all over western Europe. The Front National of
Jean Marie Le Pen in France is probably the most successful political party of
the right, getting quite a big response of the electorate. In Belgium (Vlaams
Blok) and in the Netherlands (Centrum Democraten) the ultra right also has its
seats in parliament and even more in local government. The outbursts of
violence and racial terror have not been as frequent as in Germany, but that
may be just a matter of policy. As has been shown in a number of articles and
teevee documentaries, there is a quite solid cooperation between these
ultra-rights allover Europe. The economic problems of this period, combined
with an influx of refugees (that could have been absorbed easily under better
economic circumstances), provide a fertile soil for these sentiments. Added to
this, the fact that some of these theories are official policy of parts of
what used to be Yugoslavia. This gives these ideas more status than they
deserve.
But over all IMHO the ultra-right has no chance to overthrow the democracies
of western Europe. There are fundamental differences to the thirties. The
democracies have a longer tradition and are rooted deeply. Secondly, big
business has no interest in these groups: they want stability. In the thirties
a number of great industrialists actively supported the nazi's, I do not
thinkthat that will happen again. Thirdly, these ultra-rights get a very bad
press everywhere. People are much better informed than sixty years ago.
I do not want to underestimate the danger of all this and the fear it brings
back especially to the survivors of the holocaust, but these democracies are
strong enough to deal with these problems without resorting to extreme
measures.

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     George M. Welling - dep.Alfa-Informatica HCI - University of Groningen
     phone : +31 50 63 54 74  | fax : +31 50 63 49 00  | welling@let.rug.nl
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Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU