In Brief...World News Review A Right-Wing Movement Sweeps Through Europe

Jun 9, 2002
3 minutes read time

The winds of political change are blowing across the continent of Europe. Upheavals have recently been spawned in the Netherlands and France. Dutch rightist party leader Pim Fortuyn was assassinated on May 6—depriving him from sharing personally in the spoils of his party's surprising showing at the Dutch polls. It came second in a country whose governmental structure usually embraces a coalition of different parties.

Print
The winds of political change are blowing across the continent of Europe. Upheavals have recently been spawned in the Netherlands and France. Dutch rightist party leader Pim Fortuyn was assassinated on May 6—depriving him from sharing personally in the spoils of his party's surprising showing at the Dutch polls. It came second in a country whose governmental structure usually embraces a coalition of different parties. Also, French extremist party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen came in second in the next to last stage of the French presidential race, consigning socialist French Prime Minister Leon Jospin to third place and paving the way for his ouster from government. This left France in a state of shock, producing a national scare that in turn engendered the overwhelming victory of incumbent President Jacques Chirac in the runoff. These headline-grabbing changes are indicative of what is taking place a little more quietly in much of Europe. According to The Economist, "A pattern may now be emerging across the EU. Centre-left and social democratic governments are losing power to centre-right governments. In the past year the left has lost power in Italy, Denmark, Portugal and now the Netherlands. In France, the Socialists' candidate [Leon Jospin] failed to reach the final round of the presidential election" (May 18, 2002, British spellings). Germany's Social Democrat chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, faces a tough challenge from the more rightist Edmund Stoiber in September's elections. Jörg Haider's right wing Freedom Party is gaining ground in Austria's ruling coalition. Racially extremist National Front movements are on the rise in both Britain and France. Said Claude Allégre, former socialist education minister: "We are witnessing a Europe swinging back towards the right, and sometimes towards the extreme right. And France is no different. Why should it be? Pink Europe is finished" (The Sunday Times, April 28, 2002). The New York Times succinctly sums up the current situation: "From Spain to Scandinavia, European politics is drifting to the right. As the economy slows, political parties stressing law and order and stricter controls on immigration are gaining ground, and mainstream conservative politicians are becoming more popular." At the heart of the problem is the westward refugee movement from Eastern Europe. The Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall are no more. People are pouring into the nations of Western Europe demanding asylum amid a climate of high unemployment (on the Continent) and strained social and financial resources. Often the citizenry deeply resents the sudden presence of these refugees, however compelling their individual cases may be. Margaret Thatcher's observations are instructive in her new book, Statecraft. "During my lifetime most of the problems the world has faced have come, in one fashion or the other, from mainland Europe, and the solutions from outside it" (2002, p. 320). From time to time ever since the era of the Roman Empire, the European continent has been host to damaging revolutionary movements that periodically repeat themselves, devastating the land with suffering and death. The worry is that a coming European superstate is next. Requesting our free brochure, The Book of Revelation Unveiled, will give the reader much more detail. —Sources: The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor [electronic edition], The Economist, Statecraft, The Sunday Times [London].
Europe
World Regions

Course Content

Darris McNeely

Darris McNeely works at the United Church of God home office in Cincinnati, Ohio. He and his wife, Debbie, have served in the ministry for more than 43 years. They have two sons, who are both married, and four grandchildren. Darris is the Associate Media Producer for the Church. He also is a resident faculty member at the Ambassador Bible Center teaching Acts, Fundamentals of Belief and World News and Prophecy. He enjoys hunting, travel and reading and spending time with his grandchildren.

Jim Tuck

Jim Tuck

Jim has been in the ministry over 40 years serving fifteen congregations.  He and his wife, Joan, started their service to God's church in Pennsylvania in 1974.  Both are graduates of Ambassador University. Over the years they served other churches in Alabama, Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, California, and currently serve the Phoenix congregations in Arizona, as well as the Hawaii Islands.  He has had the opportunity to speak in a number of congregations in international areas of the world. They have traveled to Zambia and Malawi to conduct leadership seminars  In addition, they enjoy working with the youth of the church and have served in youth camps for many years. 

John Ross Schroeder

John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.

Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.

John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.

In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.

John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.