European Union officials watched from the sidelines as racist violence fuelled by the far right spread across British cities earlier this month. They must learn lessons from Britain’s experience and take a long hard look at their own dismal record in addressing racial discrimination, countering Islamophobia and preventing hate against migrants.
Such reflection is urgent, given the stunning gains made by the far right in recent European elections and because Germany’s extreme-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) may win in this weekend’s state elections in Saxony and Thuringia. Last week’s stabbing in Solingen by a suspected member of Islamic State has increased pressure on German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s already shaky coalition, adding to my fears that an AfD victory will push the EU collectively even further into once-taboo far-right territory.
After spending years trying to convince EU officials to turn their lofty talk of building a “union of equality” into reality, I am convinced that Europe’s national leaders and senior policymakers in Brussels, including Ursula von der Leyen, the newly reappointed European Commission president, are not doing enough to push back against entrenched EU-wide racism, including Islamophobia. All too often, by accommodating Eurocentric and xenophobic far-right views, they are in fact mainstreaming and amplifying them.
Scholz has reacted with understandable anger at the knife attack in Germany in which three people were killed. His promise to step up deportations and border checks and tighten weapons regulations is typical of EU leaders’ kneejerk reaction of collectively stigmatising all migrants and refugees as potential “terrorists”.
I keep hoping for an equally strong official response whenever there is a far-right attack on an asylum centre, or whenever police or border security forces are violent towards minorities. But the usual response is radio silence, or victim-shaming that dehumanises black and brown migrants and Muslims. Parts of our media are complicit in pandering to the far-right social media “stars” and politicians. Few pay attention when the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights calls out “shocking levels” of racism against black Europeans, or the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) warns of a “manifold” increase in hate incidents, including online abuse, targeting European Muslims.
In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020, the EU adopted an anti-racism action plan. Many of us saw this as a defining moment in building an inclusive Europe. But the much-needed initiative is running out of momentum because of strong political opposition, poor enforcement and frequent interference by governments.
Malta’s Helena Dalli was appointed as the EU’s first-ever commissioner for equality in 2019. She started her job with panache and won kudos for her commitment to the anti-racism agenda. But she has been criticised by the French government for meeting the Muslim youth organisation Femyso, which Paris claims has links to the Muslim Brotherhood, an allegation vehemently denied by the group. When Dalli made a valiant attempt to draw up an inclusive language manual to be used by all EU institutions, a number of rightwing politicians in the European parliament – including members of the dominant European People’s party (EPP) to which von der Leyen belongs – suggested that she was trying to deny Europe’s Christian roots, and the document was withdrawn.
There is also bureaucratic fragmentation and confusion. Three so-called EU envoys” deal with racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism, but only the last, who works closely with commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas – an EPP member who is tasked with promoting the “European way of life” – has so far been successful in convening high-profile meetings on the topic with commissioners in attendance. In contrast, the last high-level EU anti-racism summit was held more than two years ago, and discussions on implementing the EU initiative to counter anti-Muslim hatred are being held with experts, rather than commissioners.
Von der Leyen did speak out against the “extreme polarisation” of European societies when she was trying to win a second term as European Commission president. Yet, regrettably, she has not repeated a promise she made in 2021 to create a truly open and racially inclusive Europe. And by continuing with egregious cash-for-migrant deals with neighbouring autocrats and beefing up the EU’s border control force, Frontex, which is accused of illegal pushbacks of migrants, she has shown an unwavering commitment to reinforcing Fortress Europe.
There are glimmers of hope, from the frequent public protests against the far right across Europe to efforts by progressives and anti-racist activists to build EU-wide networks and to maintain their collective pressure for change. I am also hoping that, sooner or later, von der Leyen and her new team will publicly acknowledge that EU economies need 1 million foreign workers every year because of demographic trends. They must also call out racism in Europe for exacerbating societal divides, weakening democracy from within and affecting the EU’s global reputation. This would push Brussels policymakers to pay as much attention to tackling Europe’s racism problem as they do to beefing up defence and upgrading the bloc’s competitiveness.
Von der Leyen promised last year to build a Europe “where it doesn’t matter what you look like, who you love, how you pray, and where you are born”. For this to be more than lip service, she needs to start her new five-year term with a new and powerful anti-racism narrative, adopting a revised anti-discrimination blueprint and, very importantly, appointing a new EU equality commissioner who has autonomy and a stronger political mandate to do their job.
All this may run against the political headwinds, but it is not wishful thinking. It does however require political courage, a strong moral compass and determination to fight back against the normalisation of toxic and ultimately anti-European narratives of the far right.
Shada Islam is a Brussels-based commentator on EU affairs
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