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European far-right parties on the rise

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Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), has classified the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as "confirmed right-wing extremist." Germany's other political parties want mostly nothing to do with it. Some politicians have even called for it to be banned. What does the situation look like in the rest of Europe?

Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV) recently caused the four-party coalition that it led to collapse because it had not cracked down hard enough on migration in its view. "I proposed a plan to close the borders for asylum-seekers, to send them away, to shut asylum shelters. I demanded coalition partners sign up to that, which they didn't," Wilders told reporters. "I signed up for the strictest asylum policies, not for the demise of the Netherlands."

New elections are now planned for autumn.

Although his party became the strongest force in the parliamentary elections, Wilders did not become head of government because he was deemed too radical by his coalition partners. Instead, independent politician Dick Schoof was nominated prime minister of the Netherlands.

If it were up to Wilders alone, he would ban all new mosques and the Quran. He is also a vocal critic of green strategies to tackle climate change, and he views the European Union as being too overbearing.

Wilders is in complete control of his party, of which he is the sole registered member; even deputies and ministers are officially only supporters of the PVV. This allows Wilders to decide on the party program alone and appoint all election candidates himself.

The

© Deutsche Welle