The European center parties’ stumbling and bumbling on countering xenophobic politics

The far-right parties in the EU countries, like the Republican Party in the United States, have made ethnonationalism and outspoken hostility to immigrants and especially refugees a key part of their political project.

Political experience in the last two decades in Britain, France, Italy and other countries has shown that center-right parties trying to win anti-immigrant votes away from the far-right parties by adopting their xenophobic appeals have wound up weakening themselves and strengthening the far right. (1) Since the xenophobic appeals are fundamentally anti-democratic and anti-rule-of-law, center parties validating the far right’s key anti-immigrant rhetoric increases the far right’s credibility on those issues.

Pushing back on the anti-democracy politics of the far right also requires demystifying the demagogic anti-immigrant rhetoric. It means bringing forward facts and practical considerations. But it also has to involve refuting false claims over immigration but also defanging the emotional edge of the right’s rhetoric and their anecdotes, which are often dishonest and highly misleading. Xenophobia lives on anecdotes.

This panel discussion from the Europe Calling European webinar group does into these questions in some detail. The comments by immigration expert Judith Kohlenberger of the Vienna University of Economics and Business are particularly good.

Video Europe Calling (English Version): (2)

Video Europe Calling (German Version): (3)

Notes:

(1) Biebricher, Thomas (2023): Mitte/Rechts. Die Internationale Krise des Konservatismus. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

(2) Europe Calling #206 "Migration - What does a restrictive immigration policy do to a society?" (EN). Europe Calling YouTube channel 11/05/2025. <https://youtu.be/QeEuFqHasDY?si=wWdU0YUHyF5tn5xR> (Accessed: 2025-26-03).

(3) Europe Calling #206 “Was macht eine restriktive Einwanderungspolitik mit der Gesellschaft?” (DE). Europe Calling YouTube channel 11/05/2025. <https://youtu.be/E9sRW_ah7VQ?si=Z5hmbb0RAhaL1pCk> (Accessed: 2025-26-03).