Instead, the AfD joined the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, or E.C.R. The E.C.R. also includes members of the British Conservative Party, whose decision to welcome the AfD last week strained already uneasy relations between Ms. Merkel and Mr. Cameron, the Conservative leader. (Britain, of course, has long opposed the euro union, having opted to stick with the pound sterling.)
But membership in the E.C.R. is not likely to quiet criticism that the AfD, led by Bernd Lucke, an economics professor at the University of Hamburg, is a Trojan horse for Germany's extreme right. The E.C.R. also includes right-wing populist parties like the True Finns of Finland and the Danish People's Party.
Still, Mr. Henkel may make it harder to stereotype anti-euro forces in the European Parliament as a collection of right-wing cranks.
'It's a good thing to have a political party from Germany composed of people with reputations like Mr. Henkel,' Jan Zahradil, a Czech member of the European Parliament who is first vice chairman of the E.C.R., said by telephone after the group voted to include the AfD. 'He really is an asset.'"
The NYT is relentless on the subject of where Henkel stands: he is a "contrarian" (the article uses that term twice to describe his views). He has "a blue-chip business resume," whose support makes parties who support his positions "more socially acceptable." Other members of his Party may be "xenophobic," but Henkel is a member of Amnesty International who opposes "anti-immigrant" policies and he "ruled out" cooperating with UKIP (the rabidly anti-immigrant party of the United Kingdom). Henkel is so obviously opposed to such xenophobic views that he "make[s] it harder to stereotype anti-euro forces in the European Parliament as a collection of right-wing cranks." Indeed, Henkel is so respectable that a leader of the ECR labels him "a real asset" not simply to Henkel's party (the German AfD), but to the ECR. As a result, the ECR recently voted to allow the AfD to become part of its bloc.
A little background is required about the ECR. David Cameron, the UK's extremely conservative Prime Minister, led a split from the main center-right group, the EPP-ED group. Cameron is eager to expand the ECR's membership in order to have more power relative to its more powerful rival on the right, the EPP-ED.
The article notes that the ECR "also includes right-wing populist parties like the True Finns of Finland and the Danish People's Party," but fails to explain why the significance of a self-described "center right" group including these three parties. The so-called EU center-right (dominated by the EPP-ED), on economic issues, already champions ultra-right policies that only a small subset of economists support. As I have explained many times and will briefly reprise when I return at the end to discussing the euro, those policies have proven catastrophic -- and the EU Rights' response has been to double-down on the policies and go into deep denial. The formation of the ECR pushed the EU right much farther to the right than the already catastrophic EPP-ED economic policies. Willingly adding the AfD, The Finns (as they prefer to be called in English) and the Danish People's Party to this already hard right bloc means that the "center" of the EU's right is a misnomer and is moving rapidly to make it impossible for the ECR to even see the center without the aid of high power binoculars.
The Finns had the third-highest vote total in Finland, the Danish People's Party and UKIP were the top vote getters in their countries, and the AfD had the fifth-highest vote total in the recent European Parliament elections. The AfD's success was greater than may be apparent because the Party was formed only the year before the election. The ECR courted The Finns and the Danish People's Party -- convincing them to leave the euro-skeptic bloc in the European Parliament. All three of the Eurosceptic parties that the ECR has sought to recruit are virulently anti-immigrant.
In the U.S., the term "anti-immigrant" typically means "anti-illegal immigrant." That is not the case in the EU's anti-immigrant parties. These parties also oppose legal immigrants, including legal immigrants from one EU Nation to another. Legal immigration is the cause celà ¨bre for the anti-immigrant parties of Denmark, Finland, and Germany.
The Finn's eventually had to kick a Finnish MP out of the Party who was too candid about his free-flowing hate for the "other."
The Danish People's Party is avidly anti-immigrant.
The AfD and UKIP
Henkel may say he doesn't want to ally with UKIP, but the AfD's youth wing is an active collaborator with UKIP.
"Members of the Young Alternative, the youth wing of [the AfD], recently held a joint event with the heads of UKIP in Cologne."
When did "Contrarian" become code for "Racist?"
Reporters use the term "populist" to describe EU parties that use bigotry as a major part of their appeal. When Europeans use the term "liberal" they mean what Americans would consider anti-liberal and when they use the term "populist" they mean what Americans would consider anti-populist. U.S. populist movements are often intended to aid minorities that suffer discrimination.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
2
2
