By Nawab Khan
BRUSSELS, May 18 (KUNA) -- Citizens from the 28-member countries of the European Union are to vote between May 22 to 25 for a new European Parliament of 751 members for the next five years.
However, according to European media reports and opinion polls, because of public disillusion with the EU combined with the economic crisis, voter turnout is expected to be low. Some analysts expect only a 40pct voter turnout.
Such widespread voter apathy would go in favour of the growing number of rightist and populist political parties in Europe, warn observers.
The British weekly magazine, The Economist, opined that "a record number will probably not bother to turn out. Many of those who do will back populists and extremists. Broadly anti-European parties may take well over a quarter of the seats." Despite some encouraging signs that the economy in Europe is on the path of recovery, the high unemployment rate of 26 million people in the EU is a bait for far right groups to fish for support among the disgruntled voters.
European far right groups and their leaders, like Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Marine Le Pen of France, are not only anti-immigrant, anti-Islam and anti-Semitic but they also share a strong revulsion of the EU and its aims and values.
They constantly blame Brussels for all the economic, political and social woes of Europe.
Andreas Molzer, a Member of the European Parliament for the far right Austrian Freedom Party recently described the EU as a 'negro conglomerate' and compared the European bloc to Nazi Germany.
The leader of the Dutch Party of Freedom (PVV), Geert Wilders, has called for a ban of the Holy Quran and for the expulsion of Moroccans from the country.
Marcel de Graaff, who is leading the PVV's European campaign, said in a recent interview that "the Moroccan culture is an inferior culture." Surprisingly, most of the European extreme-right leaders share an admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Nigel Farage, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, who wants his country to leave the EU, was reported as saying that Putin was the world leader he most admired.
"Compared with the kids who run foreign policy in this country, I've more respect for him than our lot," he stated.
At the same time it appears astonishing that mainstream leaders in Europe have not come out with a strong counter-narrative to the extreme right wing groups and to challenge their anti human-rights agendas.
A Brussels-based political analyst, Shada Islam, noted in her recent article that "over the years, instead of rejecting the far right rhetoric by developing a lucid counter-narrative, more and more mainstream European parties have also been talking tough on immigration and some EU policies." European politicians tend to ignore the fact that following the devastation of the Second World War, millions of immigrants from Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and elsewhere have worked hard and contributed heavily to the prosperity and development of Europe.
To blame immigrants for the rise of unemployment in Europe is totally absurd and unfounded.
Analysts are of the view that if the extremist and populists parties win 25 percent of the seats in the new European Parliament they could hamper and disrupt the function of the Assembly and put hurdles in the path of the European integration process. (end) nk.sd