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The Left cautious about migration

October 15th, 2015

A Marxist philosopher accuses mainstream left-wing parties in Hungary and in Europe as a whole of espousing populist nationalism and anti-immigrant rhetoric.

The allegedly democratic opposition parties have surrendered to chauvinistic, racist public sentiments and the far-right’s authoritarian, oppressive, discriminatory politics,” Gáspár Miklós Tamás in Népszava criticizes mainstream left-wing parties. The Marxist philosopher finds it disappointing that left-wing parties in Hungary as well as in Europe are taking over the Right’s anti-immigrant nationalist rhetoric out of fear of losing voters. Tamás quotes a recent poll according to which 79 per cent of Hungarians call for even stricter border control and asylum laws. Similarly to other social democratic parties in Europe, both the MSZP and the LMP to a certain extent support the Orbán government’s anti-immigrant policies (see BudaPost October 5) which Tamás claims are borrowed from far-right ideologies. As a result, true left-wing voters who do not share what Tamás sees as “fascistoid” anti-immigrant views are left without political representation.

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