Europe is in a moral quandary these days. It’s ironic that the more it attempts to instill a sense of security by building ever-higher outside boundaries and treat those who flee war, strife and poverty with disdain, the more it feeds our sense of insecurity.
Denmark’s plans to confiscate asylum seekers’ valuables and delay for three years family reunification is one shameful example of how some countries in Europe are destroying their values in return for a false sense of security. For Norway, one of the most affluent countries in the world, to return asylum seekers to Russia is another example of the moral demise we are suffering today.
In Finland too the police and the government are unable to agree if neo-Nazi street patrol gangs or clowns that mock at them a threat to our society and values.
What do Denmark, Norway and Finland have in common? They are all Nordic countries and have populist anti-immigration parties in government. In Norway, we have the Progress Party (FrP), in Finland the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, and the Danish People’s Party (DPP).
But blaming these three anti-immigration parties for the rise of xenophobia in the Nordic region would be missing the point. All three parties are in government and have got more power in their respective countries thanks to the support and near-silence of the mainstream parties.
Without the help and support of these mainstream parties the FrP, PS and DPP would never have grown to have so much power.
