The tsunami of refugees and economic migrants surging across Europe is inspiring a public backlash benefitting conservative political parties as seen in several key elections held in Poland, Switzerland and Austria last month. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative governing coalition, however, is beginning to fracture.
The founders of the European Union grounded the concept on Christian principles. Yet, the Brussels bureaucracy turned it into a defenseless, secular project.
Today’s resurgent conservative parties are, in fact, reclaiming the initial vision — possibly too late.
Polish Victory
On Oct. 25, in Polish parliamentary elections, the Law and Justice party (PiS) crushed Civic Platform (PO), which has held power for eight years. PiS secured such an unexpected margin that it can govern without coalition partners for the first time in post-Communist history.
One critical issue was the European Union’s (EU) effort to force each member country to take a quota of the tens of thousands of people arriving from the Middle East and Africa over the last three months. As a Euroskeptic party, Law and Justice campaigned against accepting migrant quotas.
It is also dedicated to building its own defense leery of Brussels, the EU capital, when it comes to national security.
Indie Swiss
The Swiss electorate also moved from left to right in parliamentary elections on Oct. 18, largely on the basis of migration fears. Polling before the election found the No. 1 issue worrying voters was mass immigration overwhelming Europe’s institutions and culture. Although Switzerland is not an EU member, it has many bilateral agreements with the bloc.
The conservative, anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party (SVP) took its highest seat total ever, now controlling a third of the Parliament’s lower house with the campaign slogan “Stay Free.” Switzerland has agreed to accept refugees being relocated by the EU, but SVP advocates stricter rules about who can stay in the country, both asylum seekers and EU nationals.
Austria’s Freedom Party
Even voters in Vienna, a longtime left-wing stronghold, gave a major boost to the controversial conservative populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), which won 31 percent in the municipal contest Oct. 11 — the FPO’s highest tally in 59 years. The FPO was the first political party in Europe to make immigration a key issue, some 30 years ago. It recently proposed Austria build a border fence as Hungary did.
Protesting FPO’s inclusion in a governing coalition in 2000, the EU initiated a diplomatic boycott against Austria, accusing the government of being xenophobic and racist.
FPO’s Euroskepticism — and its long-held position that Austria must defend its homeland and identity — is now inspiring popularity rather than alienation.
Ground Zero: Germany
Germany expects to process 800,000 new residents this year (the unofficial estimate is closer to 1.5 million) in response to the crisis it helped create by declaring all refugees from Syria welcome.The 2016 price tag for this hospitality is a jaw-dropping $17.6 billion. One of the realities fueling public discontent is the fact that many people claiming to be refugees fleeing war are really economic migrants not in crisis — not even from Syria.
German officials estimate that about 30 percent of the hundreds of thousands of people seeking asylum claim to be from Syria, but aren’t. About 40 percent of Germany’s asylum seekers in the first eight months of 2015 were from the Balkans — mainly Albania, Kosovo and Serbia — who don’t qualify for asylum since their countries are peaceful. Most of these people are supposed to be deported.
Chancellor Merkel (whose popular nickname is Mutti, Mom), with her Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is the most prominent proponent of open-door migration into Europe and popular still based on a 10-year record of economic success.
But there are fractures in her conservative governing coalition. While the chancelor’s mantra is “Wir schaffen das” (We can do this), her partners in the Christian Social Union (CSU) are responding, “No we can’t!”
Bavaria-based CSU represents the southeast, bordering Austria, where over 10,000 asylum seekers arrive daily — 344,000 migrants in the last two months alone.
Bavaria Prime Minister Horst Seehofer has emerged as Merkel’s challenger on refugee policy. He advocates faster processing of asylum cases, speedy deportation for those from “safe” countries, reduced benefits and processing people in “border transit zones” rather than disturbing German communities.
In talks last weekend, Merkel agreed to establish transit zones on Germany’s border, where economic migrants can be separated from authentic refugees before entering the country. Tensions remain between the CDU and CSU, though.
Despite colder weather, the tsunami of humans on the move is relentless. In just one week, Oct. 17-25, some 62,000 passed through the small nation of Slovenia, on their way to Germany.
While infighting intensifies in Merkel’s coalition, a conservative, Euroskeptic party has emerged to take the anti-immigration mantel: National support for Alternative for Germany grew from 3 percent in August to 7 percent this month. Thousands rallied Oct. 19 against the influx of Muslims, specifically at protests in Dresden, organized by Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA), founded last year.
The group, centered in eastern Germany, intends to spread its message throughout Europe. It sponsored a protest in Utrecht, Netherlands, this month, too.
Voters Wake Up
The European Union was created in the 1950s as an internal market where the free movement of goods and people would promote prosperity and security.
Twenty-eight nations gave up sovereignty for this utopian ideal — except Switzerland, which never bought the Euro. The recent border collapse demonstrates that the EU is impotent when required to defend itself. Conservative political parties are succeeding as voters awaken to the fallacy of the European project. Nations just can’t give security away.
Victor Gaetan covers international issues for the National Catholic Register and contributes to Foreign Affairs.Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
