far-right politics Europe

L’appello al popolo contro i corrotti della casta, per dirla con
Margaret Canovan, una delle pioniere nello studio di questo fenomeno, ha portato a sconvolgimenti talvolta inattesi sugli scenari politici di molte realtà europee. I casi più eclatanti si sono certamente registrati in Italia e in Francia: Beppe Grillo, con il Movimento 5 Stelle e Marine Le Pen, alla guida del Front National, hanno avuto un impatto senza precedenti nelle ultime competizioni elettorali. Ma se, in Italia la spinta propulsiva dei pentastellati sembra essersi già esaurita (tra scissioni, epurazioni e abbandoni), non è così per la creatura che Jean-Marie Le Pen ha lasciato in eredità alla figlia

Η συζήτηση στην οποία θα προσπαθήσω να συνεισφέρω μερικές σκέψεις και κάποια ερευνητικά ευρήματα περιστρέφεται γύρω από ορισμένα στοιχεία της πολιτικο-ιδεολογικής συγκρότησης του νεοπαγούς πολιτικού μορφώματος του Σταύρου Θεοδωράκη, το Ποτάμι. Πρόκειται συγκεκριμένα για τα αντικομματικά, ολιγαρχικά και αυταρχικά στοιχεία που έχουν μέχρι σήμερα εντοπιστεί να συνθέτουν τις ιδεολογικοπολιτικές συντεταγμένες αυτού του μετα-κομματικού πολιτικού κινήματος του κέντρου. Στο πλαίσιο αυτό, θα επιχειρήσω να σκιαγραφήσω το πολιτικο-ιδεολογικό προφίλ που συνθέτουν τα παραπάνω χαρακτηριστικά του Ποταμιού, να εντοπίσω την πηγή τους στο πολιτικο-ιδεολογικό φάσμα και να αναδείξω μια σειρά από αντιστοιχίες, ομολογίες, ομοιότητες αλλά και διαφορές που το μόρφωμα αυτό παρουσιάζει σε σχέση με ένα τμήμα των αγανακτισμένων της «πάνω πλατείας», αλλά και με τον απολυταρχικό λαϊκό υπερεθνικισμό της ΧΑ.

It is strange that funding for an investigation into a clearly right-wing extremist scheme for World War III is used by a supposedly left-wing newspaper to attack, in a defamatory way, my colleagues and me, as well as to defend a seemingly pacifist document, i.e. the earlier letter of the 60.

The Great Depression of the 1930s greatly affected political developments in Europe. Economic stagnation proved beneficial for far-right parties, which generally saw their influence increasing. Authoritarian regimes became established in most European countries at the time, the most important being the Nazi regime in Germany. In recent years, the global financial crisis has also increased the appeal of far-right extremists. All over Europe anti-system political parties that are anti-liberal, racist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic and Eurosceptic are
gaining ground: the European Parliament elections held in May 2014 offer the latest example of this. Historical experience shows that when economic conditions remain bad for a significant period of time people tend to become more radical as far as their electoral behaviour is concerned. However, no matter how strong the linkage between economic crisis and the rise of political extremism might be, economic crisis is not the only factor to be taken into account when analysing the phenomenon of political extremism, as other parameters (historical, social and so on) are also important.

This article investigates the involvement of the Stepan Bandera faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) in the Nazi-led mass executions in Ukraine during World War II. It focuses mostly on the mass murders in the summer of 1941 in historic Volhynia. The study shows that the OUN-B leaders and its expeditionary groups played a key role in organizing militia (police) formations, which participated—typically in assisting roles—in the mass murders of Jews, Soviet and Polish “activists,” and Soviet prisoners of war by the Einsatzgruppen and other formations of Nazi Germany. It analyzes such collaboration in these mass executions in the Volyn, Rivne, and Zhytomyr Regions and some locations in the Lviv, Ternopil, and Kyiv Regions. The specific cases examined include executions, primarily of Jews and Soviet “activists,” in the summer of 1941 in the towns of Lutsk, Rivne, Dubno, Kostopil, Kremenets, Matseiv (Lukiv), Olyka, Torchyn, Tsuman, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Zhytomyr, Sokal, and Bila Tserkva. This study also analyzes the contemporary memory politics in Volhynia concerning the OUN-B and the Nazi mass murder. It focuses on the misrepresentation by many local politicians and mass media of mostly Jewish victims of the Nazi-led executions, who were exhumed in 2011-2013 in the town of Volodymyr-Volynskyi, as Polish victims of Soviet executions in the beginning of World War II. The article argues that this politically-motivated misrepresentation exemplifies the attempts to deny or ignore involvement of the OUN-led militia and the OUN-controlled police, which provided the majority of commanders and members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in 1943, in the Nazi genocide, and to cast the OUN-B and UPA leaders and members as national heroes.