Scandinavia and the far right

In the recently published article, "Scandiavia and the far right", Tor Bjørklund and Jørgen Goul Andersen outlines the historical developement and success factors behind the two large "far right" parties in Scandinavia, namely the Progress Party (FrP) in Norway

and the Danish People's Party (DPP) in Denmark.

The article takes as it´s point of departure what Klaus von Beyme has named "the three waves of mobilisation" of the far right parties in postwar Europe.

The first wave is represented by the neo-fascist or neo-Nazi parties that emerged just after the second world war. According to the authors, this wawe was virually non-existent in Scandinavia.

From tax protest to xenophobia
The second wave is represented by the outbreak of populist tax protest parties, and this is exactly what both the norwegian and the danish Progress Parties were from the beginning (in 1973). These parties were characterized first and foremost by anti welfare state sentiments and outcries for lower taxes. They were both distinguishable from conventional right wing parties, however, by their anti elitist, populist style.

The third wave is represented by the outburst of xenophobia and anti immigration sentiments, as a result of the rapidly increasing numbers of asylum seekers in the mid 1980s. And that is exactly what FrP and DPP turned into, after having gone through a successfull transformation from being typical second wave parties to very successful representatives of the third wave, Bjørklund and Andersen writes.

This shift in focus was strictly necessary for both parties, due to the neo liberal wave in international politics that reached Norway and Denmark in the early 1980s - making both parties superfluous as proponents of neo-liberalism. Also, as tax cuts became less important to voters, the to far right parties needed something new to build their politics around. The solution was immigration - an issue that became increasingly important to voters in both countries.

Embracing the welfare state
The reorientation from tax protest to anti-immigration politics created a division in the norwegian FrP, with the hard core neo liberals leaving the party. In the Danish case, the break was more thorough: A new party, The Danish People's Party (DPP) grew out from and became the successor of the Progress Party.

DPP was led by Pia Kjaersgaard, and had a more nationalistic manifesto than it´s Norwegian counterpart FrP. DPP also went further than FrP in embracing the welfare state and distancing itself from the tax protest of the second wave, but both parties were becoming pro-welfare parties.

The reason why FrP still is able to argue for lower taxes, is the enormous oil revenues received by Norway, which FrP wants to spend more from. At any rate, both parties have moved towards the political centre, the authors state.

The new value orientation of politics
The contemporary success of these two parties must also be understood in light of the expressions "new right" and "new left", the authors suggest. By "new" left and right, they mean the shift in post industrial politics from being guided by purely economic questions and class conflict to a more value orientated political scene.

The new left is represented by environmentalists and liberals, typically corresponding with higher education, whereas the new right is represented by more authoritarian, materialist sentiments, typically corresponding with minor education and low incomes.

Thus, a paradoxical situation has emerged, where manual workers are placed to the right on the value dimension, but to the left on the economic dimension - experiancing increasingly alienation from their traditional parties - which in turn has opened up great opportunities for far-right movements.

Correspondignly, both DPP and FrP today has higher proportions of manual workers among their supporters than the social democratic parties.

Why not in Sweden and Finland?
The article also addresses the question why far right parties have been much less successfull in both Sweden and Finland than in Norway and Denmark. Here, the answer is found partly in the lack of strong leadership (which in both the Danish and Norwegian cases has proved to be extremely important), and partly in other circumstances.

One of these were the lack of referendums that "shook up" the political climate such as the EU/EEC membership referendums in 1972 in both Denmark and Norway did. According to the authors, these referendums facilitated the breakthrough of new parties because the bonds of loyalty between voters and their parties was damaged.

Actually, the authors conclude, instead of asking why Sweden and Finland has not yet experienced the breakthrough of successful far right parties, one should rather ask whether this might happen in the near future. This scenario should not be ruled out totally, Bjørklund and Andersen maintains.

This article was published in The Far Right in Europe. An Encyclopedia, Peter Davies with Paul Jackson, editors, Oxford: Greenwood World Publishing, 2008, pp. 147 - 163.