"ONE OF the...features of the far right is the exaltation of xenophobia-fear of the poor foreigner."

[pampango]

http://socialistworker.org/2010/10/11/far-right-thrives-on-crisis

ONE OF the main defining features of the new far right is the exaltation of xenophobia--fear of the poor foreigner, of what is different. National-populism, a key element of the new configurations of the far right, has been described as a schematic and Manichaean reading of reality, easy propagated, which is dominated by one or more scapegoats--"anti-popular" agents deemed to be at the root of the ills suffered by the national community. While the old fascisms built a discourse based to a great extent on the exploitation of the scapegoat of the Jewish-Masonic and Communist conspiracies, the new far right organizations have built a new scapegoat for the ills of our society: immigration.

The meeting between national populism and xenophobia has been transformed into a political recipe for success by virtue of a number of favorable conditions. The general increase in unemployment and the growth of immigration in Europe in the late 1970s and especially during the 1980s and '90s generated a climate conducive to the extension of the xenophobic discourse.

In this sense, immigrants, provided they are poor, are presented on the far right as the new enemy in Europe in the 21st century. Through the negation of the universal right of individuals to seek a worthwhile future, immigrants are represented as "parasites" coming to steal our wealth and take the meager social benefits from a shrinking welfare state. The far-right populist form exploits the fear of the foreign and the different, exalting the alleged national primacy of the native against the foreign invasion.

In this way, far-right organizations present themselves as the only ones who advocate and work for the interests of "national" citizens, while the rest of the parties favor immigrants. In this sense, they orient to the motto of the FN at the presidential elections of 1992: "They prefer foreigners. We prefer the French. Vote French."
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The far-right's "national populism" in Europe sounds a lot like our own Tea Party "populism", but with the known links there are between our teabaggers and the European far-right, that should be no surprise.