Europe | Crumbling firewalls

Hard-right parties are entering government across Europe

Germany is among a dwindling number of holdouts

People gather in front of the Reichstag, seat of Germany's parliament, for a large-scale protest against right-wing extremism
The cordon holds in GermanyPhotograph: Getty Images

IN 2000 AUSTRIA’S conservatives invited the Freedom Party (FPÖ), a hard-right outfit with Nazi roots, into government—and opprobrium onto their own heads. Other eu governments suspended contacts. Scientific and artistic boycotts were mooted. Louis Michel, Belgium’s foreign minister, urged his compatriots to snub Austria’s ski slopes.

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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “From pariahs to participants”

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From the June 22nd 2024 edition

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