More than half a million people marched along the streets of London 13 September protesting against immigration. This was one of the country’s biggest Right-wing demonstrations ever, with some protesters clashing with the police and wounding at least 26 officers. Now contrast this with the picture of merely about 5,000 rival demonstrators who gathered at White Hall in central London the same day to slam hate-mongering and iterating the Labour government’s policy of welcoming migrants. The inescapable conclusion from the two showdowns is that the Far-Right is on the upward move both in Europe and America.
To bring home the point, some of the current bright stars of white supremacist politics make their presence – virtual and real – felt at the London rally organised by the Far-Right and anti-immigrant activist Tommy Robinson. There were billionaire Elon Musk, who joined via video-link, French Far-Right politician Eric Zemmour, and Petr Bystron of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Musk was so delighted at the turnout that he called it “something beautiful.” He cheered the demonstrators with the message that Britain is being destroyed. He thought there was “initially a slow erosion, but it has become a rapidly increasing erosion of Britain with massive uncontrolled migration.” He gave the clarion call for a change of government in the UK.
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For his part, Zemmour iterated the Far-Right, white nationalist conspiracy theory of so-called “Great Replacement,” which claims that white Europeans are being deliberately supplanted by non-white immigrants, mostly Moslems from the Middle East.
Expressing solidarity with the British population, he said both France and England are subject to the same process of the great replacement of “our European people by peoples coming from the south and of Moslem culture.” He signed off with the remark that Europeans are being “colonised by our former colonies.” This is might sound like xenophobic rhetoric but it surely seems to have struck a chord in the hearts of like-minded people in the UK in the backdrop of the killing of US conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was remembered at the rally with a moment of silence. Robinson’s latest “Unite the Kingdom” march came at the tail end of a highly charged summer in the UK that featured several protests staged outside hotels housing asylum seekers in England, following the arrest of an Ethiopian man who was later convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in a London suburb. Robinson’s real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and he is known for his anti-immigrant and anti-Islam views. He was so overjoyed at the massive gathering that he called it “the spark of a cultural revolution in Great Britain.”
On the other hand, at the counterprotest, organised by the “Stand Up to Racism” campaign group and attended by Left-wing lawmakers Zarah Sultana and Diane Abbott, the crowd held signs saying, “Refugees welcome” and “Smash the Far-Right.” Abbott accused Robinson and his allies of spreading “nonsense” and “dangerous” lies that asylum seekers were a threat. Britain is being overwhelmed by the immigration of Moslems from the Middle East and North Africa.
According to some pollsters, if there is an election now the Far-Right, anti-immigrant Reform UK party would be the UK’s largest political party. Interestingly, this outfit has distanced itself from Robinson. This could be happening because a feeling of insecurity has crept in among the established political outfits that non-conventional actors are taking over main stage politics and they are no more in the eyes of the common voters.
The fast-paced developments in Europe and the US point to the fact that populist movements are winning more people on their side more because of what the people see around them and in their homes. The recent battle cry of implementing Sharia laws in the host countries has offended the most tolerant of Westerners. Earlier, migrants were moving out of strife-torn areas to safer locations along with their children and womenfolk.
Recent reports suggest the new crowd of illegal immigrants are all able-bodied young Moslems, between 25 to 45 years of age. General impression spreading in Europe is that this is an undercover invasion and an effort by Islamists to move fighting fit men into Western countries and spread Islam and the Sharia. Usual politicians and political parties seem to be falling by the roadside in this new scenario. The new players have the possibilities to change the situation that seems to be looming large.
