YUDIT KISS - Letter from Tirana: Who is a guest in Europe’s house?
The political establishment has a decisive role in determining the place of hatreds in society; with adequate rules, laws and institutions it can marginalise and neutralise or, on the contrary, tolerate and encourage them.
The first urgent step to break the current wave of hatred is to address the crisis with radically different methods that focus on economic recovery, just redistribution and social inclusion. In the long run only fundamental changes in our economic and political system would put a genuine end to the periodically surfacing violent identity politics... In the process of creating feasible alternatives to our present system, which is a long-term, complex and extremely difficult undertaking, consistent, practical steps should be taken to break the mechanisms of hatred at each stage and at every level.
According to the Kanun, an ancient set of customary laws dating back to pre-Islamic times that regulated traditional Albanian society, “The house of an Albanian belongs to God and to the guest.” There are historical references to Albanians saving people of other cultures and religions in times of crisis, including persecuted Jews during the Second World War. If they managed to reach the country’s borders, local authorities let them enter and people sheltered them, risking their own lives, even during the Italian and German occupation. There were no documented cases of denunciation and at the end of the war Albania was the only European country that had more Jews than before. This rare case of collective action driven by strong internal values and behaviour patterns is particularly worthwhile to recall today, when the “others”: ethnic or religious minorities, immigrants or refugees are less and less welcome in Europe’s house. Europe and otherness in times of crisis
Since it entered Parliament in 2010, the Hungarian extreme right Party, Jobbik uses it as a platform to launch virulent attacks against Gypsies and Jews, in most cases without consequences. The party came out unscathed from the 2011 Gyöngyöspata crisis, (when “to fight against Gypsy criminality”, its activists and other nationalist uniformed groups occupied a village in North-East Hungary and terrorized its Roma population and continues to propose its “solutions”: stop the “unjustified increase of the Gypsy population”, set up boarding schools for Roma children and self-financing prisons for Roma criminals, bring back the gendarmerie, revise social welfare allowances, etc. In April 2012 one Jobbik MP repeated the accusations of a 1882 blood libel against the Jews during one Parliamentary session and in November another one proposed drawing up a list of Jewish politicians of double citizenship in Parliament since they represented a "national security risk".
In Bulgaria, where about 10% of the population belongs to the Turkish minority and 5% to the Roma, the political programme of the extreme nationalist party, Ataka, states that “Bulgaria is a unitary, monolith state”, demands a ban on broadcasts and editions in other languages in the state-sponsored national media, and on “ethnic parties and secessionist organizations “. This programme ends with a call: “Let’s regain Bulgaria for the Bulgarians!”
Greece’s violent far right party, Golden Dawn got into Parliament in 2012 with a slogan of "Greece belongs to Greeks" and has been implementing it with the silent complicity of the authorities. The party’s activists distribute food aid to the “100% Greek” groups of the crisis-stricken population and at the same time threaten and physically attack immigrants; some of its followers have been involved in racist murders.
Extremist politics have gained space even in countries that are economically better-off and have strong democratic traditions. The far-right Sweden Democrat party was elected to Parliament thanks to an efficiently advertised campaign centered on anti- immigration demands and keeps solidifying its position; Geert Wilder, the President of the Dutch Party for Freedom aims to stop Muslim immigration and pay established Muslims to leave, because he “hates Islam (…) the ideology of a retarded culture.” In Denmark, with a 10% German minority and 9% immigrants, the programme of the Danish People's Party declares that “Denmark is not an immigrant-country and never has been. Thus we will not accept transformation to a multiethnic society”. Ever since it gained entry to Parliament, the DPP has worked actively to introduce stricter immigration legislation and focus social and political attention to the “Islamization” of the society.
These extreme right parties that a mere decade ago were at the margins of the political system, are in Parliament today, preparing to gain more power in the forthcoming 2014 European Parliamentary elections. The new generation of their leaders is keen to “de-dramatise” their ideology and create a distinguished, moderate image for it in order to attract voters disappointed with the traditional left and right-wing parties. Their rhetoric, ideology and demands are noticeably trickling into society and mainstream politics.
The mechanism of hatred
Historic knowledge and present experience sadly provides rich material to discern the mechanisms of hatred. The first step is an exaggerated, artificial differentiation between the majority of the population and a minority group, the separation of Us and Them. This includes an over-emphasis of the features that distinguish the minority groups from society’s majority. Instead of a source of richness, difference becomes a stigma.
The next step is separation of the two groups, by cutting off the bridges between them. There are no common values, no common experiences, the two communities cannot recognise themselves in each other; there is no space for empathy, let alone joint activities. Genocides tend to start with the execution of the target population’s intelligentsia; book-burnings often prelude burning people - the intention is to silence the voices of the “other”, so that the representatives of the majority cannot enter their world. (The separation of different social groups often leads to physical separation as well from the formation of homogenous neighbourhoods to slums, settlements or ghettos.)
The “others”, now seen as a distinct, homogenous group, become identified with the most negative, repulsive features... read more:
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