Nowhere in Europe has a nascent fascist movement made greater inroads than in Hungary, where the far-right Jobbik party has staked a hold on the hearts and minds of Hungarian youth and won 17 percent of the Hungarian Parliament in 2010.
Also the electoral rise of Golden Dawn in Greece is extremely worrying. Golden Dawn is a Nazi gang which is implicated in tenths of criminal attacks to immigrants and refugees. Greek government still tolerates Golden Dawn and its terror. In Germany the immense danger and criminal energy of the neo-nazist underground was recently revealed trough their murderous attacks against migrants as well as the entanglement of their networks with sectors of the state apparatus.
In France, Switzerland, and Austria, right-wing parties known for racist and nationalist platforms have gained ground. Influence and extremism of the Right of the Right differs from country to country. The rise of neo-Nazism and the electoral success of the populist Right are different phenonema however of the same societal pathology as they reflect the profound political crisis in Europe.
The generalized application of draconic austerity policies in Europe with devastating economic, social and cultural effects results in that the rise of the extreme Right in its different types becomes a common characteristic in European societies.
To learn better to understand the realities in the different European countries regarding the Right in its various forms and also to study systematically the political issues involved, the Alter Summit network will hold this European seminar in Budapest on 3 April.
Programme
Draft Programme
9.00 Inauguration:
Laszlo Mendrey (Hungary, Chairman of teachers trade union) and Sebastian Calvet (France, AlterSummit)
9:10 Welcome speeches:
Vilmos Hanti (MEASZ), Tamas Hirschler (MAL), Zina Mihajlova (AFH)
9.25 Panel 1: Typology of Right Extremism and neo-fascism in Europe:
Country cases presented by: Tamas Krausz (Hungary), Dimosthenis Papadatos-Anagnostopoulos (NPI, Greece), Savvas Michael Matsas (Greece), René Monzat (France), Vladimir Sedlacek (Czechia)
Moderators: Matyas Benyik (Hungary) and Monika Karbowska (Poland)
10.55 Coffee break
11:10 Panel 2: Strategic Debate (1) – Right populism against democracy and labour rights
Panelists: Emmanuelle Bigot (France), Graeme Atkinson (UK), Peter Kende (Hungary), Piotr Ikonowicz (Poland), a representative of the Austrian Trade Union Confederation ÖGB
Moderators: Gyula Hegyi (Hungary) – Marie Christine Vergiat (France)
12.35 Press conference:
Marie-Christine Vergiat (MEP, France), Zina Mihajlova (Hungary), Walter Baier (Austria), Matyas Benyik (Hungary)
13:00 Lunch break – Epitesz Pince Restaurant, 5 minutes walk
14:05 Panel 3: Strategic Debate (2) – National tensions and the far Right in CEE
Panelists: Jan Kavan (Czechia), Nina Sankari (Feminists for Another Europe), Attila Jakab (Hungary), Jenő Setét (Hungary), André Dechot (France)
Moderators: Judit Morva (Hungary) and Piotr Ikonowicz (Poland)
15.30 Coffee break
15:40 Panel 4: How to fight effectively? The cultural challenge
Panelists: Gaspar Miklos Tamas (Hungary), Mania Barsefski (Greece), Pascal Debay (CGT, France), Walter Baier (Austria)
Moderators: Attila Vajnai (Hungary) and Mirek Prokes (Czechia)
17.10 Closing statements by Tamas Krausz and Walter Baier, Adoption of the working paper
17.25 End of the seminar