Opinion
By Costas Constantinou*
Interestingly, here as in the rest of Europe, the big "winner" of what happened after October 7 in Israel is one and only. The far right.
The far-right, which until now has been keeping a wait-and-see attitude allowing nazi Islamist elements to vent freely for two weeks in the streets of European capitals along with the disgusting deniers of the massacre committed by Hamas and its usual excuse-makers.
Be it the far left or the masses of ignorant social media users who saw “Free Gaza” as the new fashion in life pretty much like a new Pokemon Hunt. Most of which, it should be noted, cannot even locate Gaza or even Israel on a map.
Understandably, they also believe Hamas' propaganda without a second thought. The unreal casualty numbers that no one checks, the AI images and the fake videos of dolls as "children".
It doesn't take much of a mind to think how the average Brit, French, German or any other Westerner feels when they see angry bearded Middle Eastern men or even hooded local far-left thugs, either chanting the Takbir in the central squares of Europe and waving Islamist symbols, or smashing property, public and private, in the name of their... ideology!
So, the far right is starting to speak up. In Germany, I heard an AfD MP -that’s the antisemite AfD!- give by far the best speech in the Bundestag lambasting all those who have kept silent in the face of Hamas atrocities or chanted half-words or even worse, whitewashed a criminal organization that is no different from ISIS by presenting it as resistance.
In a mild tone and without any exaggeration he addressed the Germans and asked if this is what they want to see happening on their streets while wondering, reasonably also, why the Scholz government has done nothing to implement Germany's crystal clear law against the cultivation of racial hatred.
Scholz was listening glancing down at the floor.
In France, Marine Le Pen was asking who will protect the French from what is happening there and the horrific memories of Islamist terrorism awakened when the government does not move decisively against those who undermine democracy while wondering how it is possible for many to talk about any prospect of a government of national unity when there are people in the (other) parties who refused to say that Hamas is a terrorist organization. When it is also officially one!
She questioned the level of democracy of all this and said that it is not possible to tolerate the fact that Hamas, which also killed 15 French people on 7 October along with 1300 Israelis, is being whitewashed without a trace of shame, in France itself.
The situation is similar in other countries too. And here as well. Most people don't take to the streets to shout. But they are frightened by what is happening. And if we talk about the centrists and the center-left they are shocked by a left totally incapable of doing anything beyond petty politics and indifferent to listening to their own concerns, especially in relation to the Immigration issue on which its primary concern is not to be accused of being xenophobic.
As, of course, with Islamism which our Left has come to "confuse" with the Palestinian issue, in its attempt to revive the polarisation of past decades, ignoring the fact that the people now have different concerns.
The other mainstream political forces, trapped here just as in Europe in the terror of political correctness, are mainly concerned with their image on social media (in Europe they are influenced by the electoral power of Muslim communities too) while citizens feel that politicians are miles away from them and that, although this is not really the case, immigrants are being treated better while they themselves are suffering.
There is no way of reversing this mood and impression other maybe than by looking at numbers, which show a great improvement in recent months, due to the measures taken by the government - if we are talking about Cyprus. But politically speaking, that's about it.
When you add to that the issue of Islamism and terrorism and when anyone who does that is simply dismissed as a racist and when mainstream political forces either sit idly by or even take to the streets defending massacres chanting slogans like "there are no locals and no foreigners" it stands to reason that countless people will end up in the hands of the far right.
Should they? Of course, they shouldn’t if one is democratically minded. But does anyone blame them? Is there anyone, especially those of us who belong to social minorities and will pay the price once again, who cannot understand why we are heading in that direction?
If democracy in Europe does not recover from the disease of political correctness and take back control of its citizens' future even with the appropriate firmness, tomorrow does not look promising at all.
With the hordes of apolitical and uninformed people ready to embrace anything that seems 'revolutionary' or cool until they find something else on social media, with the alleged progressives having once again fallen prey to dark forces and ideologies led by Moscow who feed them with fake news and disinformation to control them, with corruption running rampant and with the mild-mannered politicians in a state of embarrassment and fear of being misunderstood, yes, the age of the far right is dawning.
Starting as it always has in history from Europe and spreading to the rest of the West.
October 7 has unfortunately brought that darkness much closer. I only hope that the Jews are not to blame for this too just as they ended up getting blamed for the massacre (of Jews!) on that horrifying day, in the sick minds of so many “progressives”. I must admit, however, that I would not be surprised at all if we were to live to see this as well.
*Costas Constantinou is a journalist
