Impact and Damages
Despite postwar efforts across nations to work within a framework of mutual understanding and tolerance, violent incidences of right wing extremism/radicalism have not ceased. The “Todesopferliste” compiled by the Foundation, for instance, lists 149 people in Germany who have died in the hands of actors with racial, homophobic, and other prejudice-related motives, from the time of the Reunification until the present. In the city of Berlin alone, there were 102 documented hate crimes of racist or right-extremist nature in the year 2009.  In Russia for the year 2008, there were on average two right-extremist murders per week--phrases like “Russia for the Russians” have become socially acceptable. Between April 2005 and March 2006, there were 6,123 prosecuted for racist incidents in England and Wales. No country in Europe, can therefore claim isolation in the fight against right-wing extremism.

The institutional level
Most European countries have at least one extreme right wing party, with varying degrees of representation on a national and EU level, as well as political platforms ranging from anti-immigration (Greece, The Orthodox People’s Movement), anti-“Islamification” (Holland, The Freedom Party), the ostracism of minority groups such as the Sinti and Roma, and  territorial claims (The Great Romania Party). In terms of inter-European cooperation, Germany’s National Democratic Party (NPD) has the strongest network and benefits from a close working relationship with the UK’s British National Party (BNP). The parties are also linked through the pan-European organisation called the European National Front (ENP), whose current Secretary General Roberto Fiore from Italy’s openly neofacist New Force Party (FN) has a seat in the European parliament.

The nationalist resistance goes international
According to the Dutch historian Helen Lööw, the right-extremism problem often grows in local communities, without society as a whole being aware of it. Right-extremist community movements such as Bürgerinitiative Ausländerstopp, for example, band together to preach the the unavoidable erosion of national values with the development of a multicultural society.   Additional growth possibilities are introduced by the Internet, which allows for the strengthened cooperation between right extremist actors of differing nationalities. Right-extremist exchanges through music, social networking sites and Youtube are more and more ubiquitous. Although the Neonazi network Blood and Honor is banned in Germany, divisions and splinter groups such as Combat 18, the so-called armed fraction, are found in many other European countries such as Hungary and the United Kingdom, as well as in Australia and the US.  The Internet also acts for many right extremist movements as the perfect recruitment platform for potential new members, as it enables easy invitations to various events and meet-ups without distance constraints.

Counter-movements

Activities against right-wing extremism range from those done on a local community level, to those initiated on a Europe-wide scale. Examples of the latter are organizations such as the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in Vienna, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in Strasbourg and the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) in Brussels who conduct and support measures against racism, discrimination and right-wing radicalism for the EU states.

In the face of inadequate financial resources, and the underestimation of the problem on the government level, organizations exist in Germany which specialize in different ways of addressing right-wing extremism. These include organizations which, for example, provide counselling for victims of racist violence, or consulting services for individuals who wish to engage themselves against right wing extremism. Since its inception the Amadeu Antonio Foundation has technically and materially supported growing movement of democratic grass-roots initiatives meant to challenge the dominant right-wing culture in many towns, notwithstanding potential harassment from right-wing organizations. Through projects that continually combat neo-Nazism, racism, and anti-Semitism and ones that advocate and protect minority rights, the Foundation aims to promote an everyday culture that actively rejects right-extremist threats to democracy.

 

 

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