RACIST VIOLENCE The rise of the far right in Europe In the wake of communism’s collapse, Europe is witnessing a resurgence of right-wing ideology – most ominously in vicious attacks on immigrants and foreign workers. Germany has seen 1,800 attacks so far this year but outbursts of racism have also occurred in Spain, SPAIN 15 serious racist attacks this year, mainly against north African and Dominican immigrants. In November alone, one Dominican woman killed in Madrid, another Dominican home burnt down, Egyptian had both legs broken. Violence seems to have no particular party affiliation FRANCE Moslem and Jewish cemeteries defaced by neo-Nazi graffiti. Support for Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front (FN) – actively opposed to immigration – has risen to 13.9% AUSTRIA Anti-foreign and anti-semitic feeling on the increase. Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) petitioning for end to all immigration and the segregation of foreign children in schools ITALY Spaniard beaten and stabbed by Milan skinheads. Jewish cemeteries vandalised and shops plastered with Stars of David. Authorities estimate 1,000 active ‘Nazi-Skins’ mainly in Rome and Milan. National Right Socialist Movement (MSI-DN) – descendent of Mussolini’s national socialism – and emerging Lombard League openly hostile to immigration GERMANY Government estimates 40,000 neo-Nazi extremists, including about 4,000 violent skinheads, responsible for 1,800 racist attacks and 16 deaths this year. Most common are arson and petrol bomb attacks on hostels for asylum seekers and refugee homes, smashing windows of Turkish homes, attacking individuals with iron chains and the desecration of Holocaust memorials. The recent deaths of a Turkish woman and two girls in a fire-bomb attack in Mölln motivated the government to ban the Nationalist Front party, but violence continued in Stuttgart, Leipzig and Eberswalde. Three days of talks between government and opposition leaders failed to agree reform of liberal asylum laws which draw refugees and economic migrants in their thousands and which are seen as part of the recent surge in right-wing anti-foreign violence Attacks: September to November Italy, France and Austria Germany France Spain Italy Austria Attacks: Schwerin Waren Prenzlau Eberswalde Berlin Potsdam Eisenhüttenstadt Güben Cottbus Spremberg Dresden Flöha Leipzig Halle Erfurt Gera Oschersleben Norten-Hardenberg Göttingen Hannover Düsseldorf Koblenz Geinhausen Frankfurt Erzhausen Hemsbach Bretten Stuttgart Regensburg Gersthofen Singen Mölln Rostock Greifswald