NORDIC NATIONALISM

A new political development has taken hold in the cold north of Europe; the rise of right-wing, anti-immigrant parties.

For most of the twentieth century, Nordic politics was pretty dull. A succession of mildly left-of-centre Social Democratic Governments across the region created prosperous societies, based on a compact of high taxes in return for generous welfare. Citizens were highly educated, and pretty uniform; there were very few black or brown faces against the snow.

However, the noughties have seen the end of those cosy arrangements. It started in Denmark, where the Danish People's Party has supported the minority right-of-centre coalition since 2001, and increased its share of the vote relentlessly since then. Last year, the Sweden Democrats entered the Riksdag for the first time, after getting over the 5% threshold. And last week, in Finland, the True Finns took 19% of the vote, just behind the two leading parties, and up from a meagre 4% in 2007.

Only Norway has managed to buck the trend of new parties, perhaps because of the continued success of the Progress Party. This was founded as an anti-tax movement in the 1970's, which spawned a number of such parties. However, whereas the Danish DPP rose like a phoenix from the ashes of a similar anti-tax movement, which imploded, the Progress Party has continued, adding resistance to immigration as yet another policy.

Across the region, the basic theme of these new parties is that the old compact doesn't work any more. Taxes are far too high, and far too many of the benefits are going to undeserving people, immigrants at home and wastrels elsewhere in the E.U. (eg Greece). That message appeals particularly to pensioners, worried that the state will not be able to support them, and the jobless, who think the money should be spent on helping them find employment.

Nationalism is not a new phenomenon. But the fact that it is taking hold in what has traditionally been one of the most tolerant parts of the world is worrying.

Walter Blotscher