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      Copenhagen flirts with fascism 

      Denmark is about to head the EU. It's a worrying prospect

      Stephen Smith
      Guardian

      Wednesday June 5, 2002


      If I'd been given a pound for every time a visitor to our Holocaust centre, shaking his head, solemnly stated, "I can't believe that nobody said anything," I would be a very wealthy man. Listening to these words, I would naively believe that if the clock were rewound to the 1930s, these people would speak out. But not so; it appears these moralisers were merely commenting on the inaction of the silent, before proceeding to join their ranks. 

      Over the past year, the unheralded swing to the right in Danish politics has made the gradual increase in Germany's vote for the Nazis look slow. In the words of a Danish friend of mine, now living in Brussels: "The country has gone crazy and no one has noticed." It is more disturbing than that. What we are witnessing in Denmark is nothing less than the return of rightwing extremism to respectability - not through the acceptance of a controversial Haider or Le Pen, but through the quiet adoption of their stance by mainstream political parties. Denmark takes over the EU presidency on July 1 and will heavily influence the whole European immigration and asylum debate, which is set to dominate the EU summit in Seville later this month. 

      Conscious of rising support for the far-right Danish People's party in the run-up to last November's election, Denmark's mainstream Liberal party decided that if it couldn't beat them, it should join them. It took a hard line on immigration which paid off. The Liberals beat the Social Democrats to form the new government, in coalition with Denmark's Conservative party and with the parliamentary support of the DPP. Budgets were immediately cut to reduce public spending, especially for anything to do with human rights, civil society or overseas aid. 

      Denmark's government is now taking steps which will turn one of the world's most liberal countries into a bastion of introverted nationalism. There is no "final solution" looming in Copenhagen, but there is the creation of new solutions, using legalised discrimination. A law was passed in the Danish parliament last week which prevents anyone under the age of 24 from living in Denmark with a non-EU spouse. It also prevents asylum seekers from marrying while their applications are being processed. As if to underline the cowardice of the Act, it was the last piece of business in the parliament before the summer recess. 

      The law's unspoken rationale includes a deterrent to arranged marriages between members of Denmark's Muslim community and people in Islamic countries abroad. Legislation making this explicit would be racist, so the Danish authorities have chosen xenophobia instead - equal discrimination against all foreigners. It works from the point of view of the immigration department, but then so would many other more drastic measures if human rights were no longer part of the equation. 

      In 1935, the Nazis found a great many "reasonable" measures once they had disregarded the rights of Jews. What the new law means is that young refugees in Denmark are now second-class people deprived of the most basic of human rights - that of finding a partner for life - and this is the law. At a time when countries like Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic are trying to pass strict tests on human rights to join the European Union, a member state is creating laws that would exclude them instantly, if they happened to be from east of Berlin. All of this apparently goes unsanctioned. 

      The same moraliser is still standing there shaking his head about the world's silence, and he then voices the predictable punchline: "We have to be so careful, because history always repeats itself." Not true. History never repeats itself. If you can give me one instance where exactly the same thing happened twice, I would be interested to hear it. So for all those people looking out for goose-stepping thugs led by a former German army corporal with a little moustache, you can stop looking now. 

      History mutates. It comes back in different forms, with a different appearance and different consequences for different people. It defies us to recognise its genetic material because it changes its shape and colour to suit its environment. As it stands, the nationalism now rife in Europe is a more timid mutant of fascism. It comes with a suit and a smile. But beware. Its parentage is the same, and who knows what monster it might grow into. 

      So for all of those who shake their heads over the silence of our forebears, here's a chance to show we are not like them. In the heartland of liberal Europe, there is now a minority community, defined by their age and lack of Danish citizenship, who have just lost a key component of their human rights. What have we got to say about that? 

      Stephen Smith is co-founder of the UK-based Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre 
     
           
     Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002  

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