Europe tilts to the right

If you’ve seen world headlines today, you know this already. Europe is about to go conservative.

The notorious British National Party got its first two EU parliament seats. But as far-right as the BNP is, it won’t be lonely.

I’ve also been reading about the parties that have made gains in the Austrian, Danish and Dutch governments. They seem to have many key policies in common with each other. All three, like other right-wing European parties, especially want to restrict Muslim immigration and deny Turkey entrance into the EU.

In other words, “Keep Europe European!”

Denmark’s rising “People’s Party” even supports Israel, the US war on terror, and the maintenance of Denmark’s National Church. Their Netherlands counterpart is openly protective of “Judeo-Christian” culture.

Of course, many of Europe’s conservative parties are decidedly more Christian than their liberal counterparts. But that doesn’t make them all good news.

As American conservatives, let’s remember there are some crucial differences between Europe’s political right and North America’s.

Hungary and Slovakia, for instance, now have some governing officials from parties know for racism (antisemitic, anti-gypsy, etc.). Don’t forget, Europe’s memory of right-wing leaders isn’t filled with people like Ronald Reagan. Try Hitler or Mussolini.

That said, Hungary and Slovakia are relatively unimportant. I do think this general swing to the right could turn out to be a healthy thing for Europe overall.

In other news, I’ve figured out why I’ve become such a political blabbermouth while living in Korea. It’s because my job doesn’t keep my mind and body busy enough. And in the office, my default boredom activity is reading the news. So all the excess mental energy goes into analyzing and blabbering about politics.

Oh well. Hopefully that will be remedied once we get home and I start a real job.