\u201cMy message is that you don\u2019t need to love other members of society,\u201d she said. \u201cJust treat them respectfully.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rutte\u2019s warm embrace of Weizner-Smukn and the Jewish community — wearing a kippah and with a single security guard in tow, he mingled with the synagogue crowd like a regular, shaking hands and chatting — was typical of his rapport, which has made this right-leaning leader acceptable even to hard-left voters and politicians.<\/p>\n
But his message of acceptance and respect, which has been the norm on a continent with memories of fascist cruelty, is giving way to new voices that are rising in popularity\u00a0based on polarizing rhetoric, disdain for “elites” and a\u00a0deep concern for, if not outright fear of, the other.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe European far right is currently being reinvigorated by Trump\u2019s election,\u201d said Ronny Naftaniel, chairman of the Dutch Humanitarian Fund and a member of Dutch Labor. \u201cA backlash could benefit the far left. To prevent both scenarios, Europe\u2019s moderate forces will need to draw lessons and come up with new, strong messaging, and in some cases new politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Netherlands, the far-right <\/a>politician Geert Wilders<\/a>, who is on trial for promising to make sure his country has “fewer Moroccans,” is waging a withering assault on Rutte ahead of the general election in March. His tactics, centering on Rutte\u2019s power sharing with Labour, seem to be working: Wilders\u2019 Party for Freedom and Rutte\u2019s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy are seesawing\u00a0in the polls to see which will be the largest faction.<\/p>\n Wilders, who often speaks of his support for Israel and \u201cJudeo-Christian values,\u201d belongs to a loose alliance of anti-Muslim European nationalists riding a wave of discontent with the European Union, Muslim and Slavic immigration, and a culture of political correctness whose critics say comes at the expense of national cohesion, sovereignty and traditional values.<\/p>\n He and his European allies have celebrated <\/a>the election of Trump and Brexit \u2013 two upset events unforeseen by polling<\/a> and widely thought of as protest votes against a discredited establishment. They see them both as historical turning points and harbingers of their own success in future elections.<\/p>\n While that may be true, Europe\u2019s far right was doing pretty well even before Trump’s stunning defeat of Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n Marine Le Pen of the National Front party in France is running ahead<\/a> of the other candidates in the 2017 presidential elections with an unprecedented 26-29 percent projected for her anti-Islam party in most major polls.<\/p>\n Her Austrian counterpart and ally, Norbert Hofer, is projected<\/a> to win a popular vote next month after losing<\/a> by a hair’s\u00a0breadth to a liberal candidate in a May vote that was nullified over irregularities.<\/p>\n Further east, hard-right movements like the Law and Justice Party<\/a> in Poland and Fidesz <\/a>in Hungary are locked in a bitter fight with even more extreme forces like Jobbik. They are competing over voters who are resentful of austerity measures dictated by richer EU members and their insistence, citing humanitarian principles, that Muslim migrants be allowed to cross into the bloc from the east.<\/p>\n
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