FTR-217 Update on Euro-Fascism (One 30-minute segment) $5.00
Beginning with discussion of Jurg Haider, this program analyzes the progress of fascist political forces on the European political scene and common ideological and operational elements shared by them. (For more on Haider, see FTR #'s 28, 70, 95, 196.) Termed "the Yuppie Fascist" by some, Haider has been the lynchpin of the Austrian Freedom Party. This party was created in the late 1940's as a vehicle for the political rehabilitation of Nazis who had served Hitler. Haider has termed his political agenda "the Contract with Austria," after that of former American Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Successfully mobilizing Austrians' fear of "immigrants," Haider has entered the government as part of a parliamentary coalition. Beginning with Haider's links with overt German "neo"-Nazis, the program underscores his political solidarity with the old and new minions of Adolf Hitler. Lionizing the SS, Haider has steadfastly refused to condemn his Third Reich political antecedents. The program reviews Haider's links with Italian reactionaries and fascists and discusses the latter's adoption of Haider's anti-immigrant stance. Next, the broadcast highlights the growing political fortunes of media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, viewed by analysts of Italian politics as a possible prime minister. (Berlusconi had previously held that post, in political coalition with Gianfranco Fini, the head of the Italian fascist party and political heir to Mussolini. For more on Fini's Allianza Nationale and the Berlusconi coalition government, see Miscellaneous Archive Show M-61, as well as FTR-94.) The focus then shifts to the former East Bloc countries, with an analysis of the growth of fascism and anti-Semitism in Hungary. An Axis nation during World War 11, Hungary has shown signs of returning to the past. The broadcast concludes with a look at the continued sponsorship of Nazi terrorists by domestic German intelligence services. Program Highlights Include: analysis of the fascist allegiances of Haider's ministerial appointments; Haider's connections to Italian reactionary Umberto Bossi; Berlusconi's sponsorship of an anti-immigrant bill that echoes Hiader's agenda; Berlusconi's membership in the fascist P-2 Lodge; Hungarian governmental endorsement of media voices that express traditional European anti-Semitic sentiment; Hungarian nostalgia for and revival of the Arrow Cross milieu that fought alongside the Third Reich; political alliance between a state-sponsored Nazi terrorist in Germany and Manfred Roeder (a convicted Nazi killer who enjoyed support from the German army and its elite officers academy in the "new" Germany.) (See also: RFA #'s 2, 3, 17-21, 36, 37 and FTR #'s 2, 3, 5, 42, 43, 53, 59, 64, X6, 98, 103, 221.) (Recorded on 4/2/2000.)