How to tame extremist parties
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By Erkki Pennanen
In Sweden's recent elections the Sverigedemokraterna ("Sweden Democrats"), an anti-immigrant protest party, tripled its share of the vote to three percent. The party got representatives into local councils in nearly 80 municipalities, even though it did not get any national coverage during the campaign.
In the Skåne region the Sverigedemokraterna got more than ten percent of the vote in many areas. In the city of Landskrona, it exceeded 20 percent. Of the parties to fail to make it into the national parliament, it was clearly the largest. At this rate, the four percent vote hurdle will easily be exceeded next time.
Many experts in Sweden are getting to be ready to draw the conclusion that it is not wise to leave parties that promote racism or policies that are otherwise inappropriate on their own and among themselves, as doing so only strengthens their support.
Politicians and the media must have the courage to accept extremist parties and to challenge them into public debate, even if the task is a demanding one.
In Norway, the populist Progress Party entered Parliament a long time ago, but other parties have refused to work with it.
At times polls put the Progress Party as Norway's largest, as voters seek to express their dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, the party has never been allowed into the government to share responsibility.
In Denmark Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of the centre-right government, has been willing to lean on the support of the Danish People's Party, which has a xenophobic agenda. This has taken a toll on the government, but on the other hand, the party has had to exercise moderation in its policy on the foreigner issue. At the same time, support for the far right has been brought under control.
Finland is a forerunner in the taming of political fringe groups and turning them into moderate government parties. We could say that taking the Communist Party into the government after the war was a necessity. Nevertheless, Urho Kekkonen developed that necessity into a virtue.
In the government, the Communists really did become more moderate, and gradually split into two camps. The populist Finnish Rural Party was also tamed in the 1980s when it was taken open-mindedly into the government.
The party's chairman Pekka Vennamo was first given the post of Minister of Finance, and in the next government, he became the Minister of Transport and Communications. The party's support among the public eventually faded away.
Austria is a good example of how a populist extremist party can be tamed both in terms of its nature, and its support, by taking it into the government.
The Freedom Party of Jörg Haider, which was viewed with horror by EU leaders, split in two during the six years that it was in the government.
In the elections in the autumn of 1999 the Freedom Party became the second government party, with its 25 percent of the vote. Now in the October elections, the Freedom Party had 11 percent support, and the splinter group, the BZÖ, which broke away from it, just barely got over the four percent vote hurdle.
Each of them can try to rise again from the opposition, but in the next four years at least, the country is likely to be governed the familiar Grand Coalition of the Social Democrats and the People's Party.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 12.10.2006
ERKKI PENNANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
erkki.pennanen@hs.fi
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| 17.10.2006 - THIS WEEK |
 How to tame extremist parties |
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