Europe in 2015: Right-wing forces rise on back of worst refugee crisis since WWII
RT.com
29 Dec, 2015
Recently, three in five EU citizens told pollsters that they do not approve of migrants coming from outside the continent. With more than 1 million arriving in 12 months, rising tension is finding outlets at the ballot box and on the street.
Merkel faces backlash against Germany’s open-door policy
Angela Merkel’s Germany, the continent’s unspoken leader, has borne the main brunt of the inflows, while failing to persuade neighboring states to follow its lead. But, perhaps due to the historical guilt of Nazism, and a restrictive public discourse, growing anger has not yet gone mainstream.
Merkel’s popularity has wavered, and her coalition partners have dismissed the open-door policy as a “grave mistake,” but she is not facing an unseating by anti-immigration forces – as yet.
The anti-Islam Pegida has remained a loud and high-profile, but marginal movement, with its stronghold in Dresden, but scant presence in most major cities.
The older National Democratic Party of Germany has also not capitalized on the migrant issue, with its Neo-Nazi-tinged past and symbols failing to appeal to most ordinary Germans.
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