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The National Front under Marine Le Pen, party leader since January 2011, embodies the new far-right, out to prove that immigrants are stealing jobs, multiculturalism is sapping national identities and Europe is severing nations from their souls. Le Pen and Wilders of the Netherlands are the most visible symbols of the rise of the European far-right. Both are outspoken and charismatic in their bids to bring change. Le Pen hopes to pierce France's power structure, converting her first round score
-- a record for her party -- into seats in parliament in June elections. Her short-term dream is to become the chief of the French opposition under a leftist president. Wilders' Freedom Party, which is anti-EU, anti-Muslim and pro-Israel, already has. It won 25 of 150 parliamentary seats in 2010 elections. This week, Wilders launched his English-language autobiography, "Marked for Death, Islam's War Against the West and Me," with a trip to the United States. Another Freedom Party, this one in Austria, holds 34 of 183 parliamentary seats and polls second in opinion polls, just behind the Social Democrats, one of two parties in the governing coalition. Like France's National Front, it has
-- under new leader Heinz-Christian Strache -- pulled the curtains on its anti-Semitic bent to exploit fears of Islamist domination and the EU. The Nordic countries each count populist parties opposed to immigration, and the Danish People's Party, Denmark's third-largest, pushed the government to adopt some of Europe's strictest immigration laws. Europe's debt crisis has been fodder for anti-EU parties. Marine Le Pen, like others blaming the euro currency for her country's ills, says, "I knew it would take us into the abyss." She wants a return to the franc. There is real concern that Europe's debt plight will further stoke dormant tensions. The Council of Europe's Commission Against Racism and Intolerance warned in its annual report issued Thursday of a rise in intolerance of immigrants and minority groups like the Roma, or Gypsies, due to scarce job opportunities and welfare cuts. "Xenophobic rhetoric is now part of mainstream debate," the body said after country visits last year. "Resistance to racism is essential to preserve Europe's future," said Jeno Kaltenbach, chairman of the commission. Far-right parties often advance in small steps, pressuring governments to align laws to fit their populist ideology. Others trumpet their message inside parliament with hopes of finding a place in the mainstream right. "There is a very strong possibility of contamination of the classic parliamentary right," said Nicolas Lebourg, an expert on the extreme right at the University of Perpignan. Le Pen herself has said she sees her role as undermining the traditional right so she can eventually embody it. "You only need to be a spoiler to have an enormous weight," she said. "This victory is inevitable, like that of others in Europe who defend the nation." Whether the far-right can win real power -- for example, running a major European city
-- is far from certain. But a party need not be in power to do severe damage as it fans social tensions. "Europe today is a dry prairie waiting for someone to light a match," Lebourg said.
[Associated
Press;
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