THERE are hints that something is brewing in Europe. Semblances of a frightening future of prejudice have recently begun to emerge. This past week, in the French presidential primaries, the shocking second place finish of the super-conservative Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front party left many in Europe with their jaws agape. This marks the second time in two years in Europe that an ultra-conservative, anti-immigration candidate has been promoted to the political limelight with a high-ranking political position, or a chance for one. In 2000, Joerg Haider, a politician of similar ideals as Le Pen won the chairmanship of the Austria Freedom Party. The world must keep tabs on these subversive elements creeping into the European political scene, and combat them through protests and possible international sanctions in order to keep them away from power so that they cannot enact prejudiced policies.
Unlike our mostly two-party political system, most European states have a multitude of parties that hold onto only a percentage of certain legislative bodies. Some of these parties' views can be quite radical. Le Pen is strongly in favor of banning immigration into France - he claims that "France is for the French." After a 1987 interview with a German magazine, he was fined 1.2 million francs by a French court for claiming that gas chambers used in the Holocaust were a historical detail. He also announced on Monday that, if elected, he will break France off from the European Union.
To believe that a man of such fanatic and exclusionary convictions is one election away from becoming the leader of one of the most powerful countries in the world is a staggering realization that there is potential for such power to be mishandled.
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Le Pen's victory in the presidential primaries was unfortunately not a fluke. He received 17 percent of the vote, with current president Jacques Chirac beating him for first place by the considerably small margin of 2.64 percent. This year's voter turnout consisted of an all-time low in recent decades of 72.4 percent of eligible voters. Factored out, roughly more than one in 10 French citizens voiced their support for a candidate that was predicted to be nothing more than an extremist agitator. To compare the magnitude of this victory to the American political scene, it would be like Pat Buchanan being selected as the Republican presidential candidate, which would be upsetting because Buchanan's views are not ones shared by the majority of the American people. Clearly, and tragically, Le Pen's message is being accepted by a sizable percentage of the French public.
Fear already has begun to mount that following this victory in France, support for far-right candidates may spread to other European countries, like Germany and the Netherlands.
We must not let such a frightening prospect become reality. In 2000, Joerg Haider - who also is anti-immigration and has stated publicly that he admired Hitler - was practically forced to step down from his position as chairman of the Austria Freedom party after facing the possibility of EU and American sanctions against his country because of his views. Unfortunately, Haider still has some power, as he retained the position of governor of the Austrian province of Carinthia after his resignation as chairman.
If Le Pen is to be elected instead of his opponent Jacques Chirac, the world may find it necessary to apply similar pressure to try to force a man with such dangerous ideals out of office. If that is not possible, economic or diplomatic sanctions and pressure will have to be used responsibly by the powers of the world to ensure that any policies proposed by Le Pen that threaten the rights or safety of any citizens inside France do not come to fruition.
While it is ludicrous to assume that Le Pen's views are akin to those of Adolf Hitler, we must be wary of any form of emerging extremism. History is full of catastrophic examples of ignorance or inaction by the international community where truly fanatic men were allowed to come into power. These extremists have imposed their radical and sometimes deadly will upon their citizens, most notably in the appeasement of Hitler prior to the Second World War. In that case, the world realized too late that Hitler was a threat not only to many citizens of his own country, but also the entire world. For seven years of war, the fate of the world hung in the balance.
Many have claimed that the world learned its lesson in World War II, and would never let such extreme leaders step into power again. Without a doubt, this has not been the case: Criminal governments or leaders like Cambodia's Khmer Rouge and Bosnia's Slobodan Milosevic have destroyed thousands of innocent lives through genocide and ethic cleansing while the world stood by and watched.
Le Pen's second-place victory in France must serve as a wake up call to the world that it is not safe from extremism. We must be prepared to combat his fanaticism unless the world wishes to risk having more prejudice and persecution on its negligent hands.
(Alex Rosemblat's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at arosemblat@cavalierdaily.com.)
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