More and more European leaders are jumping on the anti-immigrant bandwagon of the far right. First Merkel, then Cameron and Sarkozy have attacked multiculturalism as a failure. They stated that it had led to segregation and 'parallel communities'.
However, what action had their governments really taken to promote an inclusive multiculturalism? Promoting nationalistic monoculturalism and exclusion of 'others' seemed to be a simpler and more cost-effective vote-winner.
What happened to liberal democratic Europe? Every country now has its very own fascist party, sometimes several. There's the British National Party and English Defence League in good old Britain, not to mention UKIP.
Moving over the Channel to France, you have Marine Le Pen of the French National Front who has a decent chance of becoming the next president in 2012.
The Islamophobic Geert Wilders leads the third biggest party in the Netherlands, the Party for Freedom.
Germany has its NPD, whilst even social democratic politicians are joining the patriotic act: see Thilo Sarrazin's bestseller, 'Germany Abolishes Itself'.
A few months ago the True Finns won 19.1 per cent of the vote in the general elections, bringing right wing politics to the scene. Then there's the Progress Party in Norway, Sweden Democrats who have 20 seats in the Swedish parliament and the Danish People's Party (see last post).
It is simply a bewildering array of populist trash that makes one think again before laughing about Sarah Palin and her nutty Tea Party in the US.
I've missed plenty of far right parties out, so watch this space for more naming and shaming to come.
