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Opposition to high levels of legal immigration flared up with the European migrant crisis in 2015 with large numbers of refugees from the Middle East and Africa.
With levels of non-European immigrant populations at odds with and perceived as threatening the historic cultures and peoples of Europe – Hungary, Poland and Greece are all showing themselves to be fiercely anti-immigrant.
Right-wing parties have entered as minorities the governments in Austria, Denmark, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Slovakia, and as major players in English, Swedish, German and French politics.
Although the majority of these countries above have ceded to Brussels, a group of Central European countries are in open revolt against the EU’s immigration policies Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland
Of the 400,000 migrants passing through Hungary towards (refugee-loving) Germany, only 331 illegals have been accepted. Fences built on the borders of Serbia and Croatia and tougher laws practically stopped the migrant flow coming north through the Balkans.
Hungary in an Oct 2016 referendum on adopting mandatory quotas from Brussels, saw 98% vote ‘No’. The small voter turnout made the vote technically invalid. The government however has taken this as a bona-fide result and a mandate from the voters to “defend the country against the compulsory quota”.
Migration has also dominated regional and parliamentary elections for the Czech Republic in October this year – where about 1100 migrants have applied for stay. A country with a population of some ten million in 2015, the majority of refugees are from Ukraine, Cuba, Syria and Vietnam. Until the closure of the Balkan route, refugees that did not succeed in crossing the Czech Republic undetected were detained in camps for deportation. Refugees have largely avoided the country since the Czech Republic’s stance was made public.
President Miloš Zeman together with IvČRn (“We don’t want Islam in the Czech Republic”), which networks with Pegida, the AfD and other older established right-wing groups, Zeman has paved the way for a country that is home to virtually no Mid-East or African migrants.
Zeman was moderate in his rhetoric, but the meaning was clear. “Refugees from a completely different cultural background would not be in a good position in the Czech Republic,” he was recently quoted as saying.
The new 2016 conservative government in Poland has reneged on a promise made in 2015 by the earlier centrist government to accept some 7,000 refugees from Syria and Eritrea. Only 695 people last year were granted asylum. According to the UN high commissioner for refugees, Poland has pledged to accept just 100 Syrian refugees between 2016 and 2020.
The new Polish prime ministerand deputy leader of the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party elected this October, Beata Szydło, on the back of an anti-migrant platform, had a firm message for her EU allies in her inauguration speech – they shouldn’t burden the Poles with their migrant problems
Law and Justice argued that taking 7,000 migrants was unrealistic, and that it was naive to believe that this quota is not a precedent to force Poland to take in additional migrants in the future.
Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, has been one of the more outspoken European leaders on the subject of Muslim immigration. “Islam has no place in Slovakia,” Fico told reporters in May. He warned that “migrants change the character of our country,” and declared he wouldn’t allow such change to affect his nation.
Fico has indicated that the burden to deal with the consequences of conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa lie further west and mocked Germany for treating Muslim immigrants as a “protected species.”
These arguments ae reinforced by public opinion. A Slovak village near the capital, Bratislava, recently held a referendum on whether to temporarily house 500 asylum-seekers in a nearby facility. Ninety-seven percent voted no.
European muslims make up 10,000 of Slovakia’s more than 5 million people. Last year, Slovakia granted asylum to 14 people from other EU states. There is a possible concession to take n 200 Syrian Christians as a gesture of solidarity.
There are already signs anti-immigration sentiments are growing across the continent. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and the center-left Social Democrats lost votes in recent regional elections to the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany.
In the Netherlands, anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party is narrowly behind Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberal Party in recent polls and could emerge as the largest party in parliamentary elections due in March.
References
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/08/19/slovakia-will-take-in-200-syrian-refugees-but-they-have-to-be-christian/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.76d9e52bc05f
http://theconversation.com/why-polands-new-government-is-a-problem-for-migrants-to-the-eu-51005
https://www.boell.de/en/2016/05/24/refugees-czech-republic-not-trace-still-problem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_migrant_quota_referendum,_2016#Invalid
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/hungary/12171895/Hungary-to-hold-referendum-on-whether-to-accept-EU-migrant-quotas.html
Hitman 3 years, 1 month ago.
