Europe's Forbidden Colony (Part two) - Featured Documentary

Croatian philosopher Srecko Horvat explores the recent rise of Europe's far right and asks if the continent is in a desperate search for sense.

The film shows how Europe's colonialism is experienced by the minority ethnic population, who disproportionately feel the power of state surveillance and intrusion.

"You look at Nice; Brussels; these are people from the miserable suburbs of Paris and Belgium. It's internal problems that are leading to the terrorist attacks. The people involved, the people who have been picked up by the police at least, have had very few shallow Islamic roots," explains Noam Chomsky, a prolific author on international relations and the origins of terrorism. "They're drawn to jihadism as a way out of degradation and humiliation and internal repression."

Slavoj Zizek, a philosopher and psychoanalyst, argues that the rise of the right represents a new phenomenon emerging in Europe, where capitalism is now comfortable with authoritarianism, racism and xenophobia.

"I think it is absolutely crucial that when we talk about [the] horror of new racism, anti-immigration ... that you read it as a symptom, or a reaction, of what is wrong with today's big global capitalism, that is the key," Zizek explains.

Horvat also reflects that it's not just the right that reaches for nationalist and xenophobic legitimacy. He illustrates how mainstream politicians - through France's banning of the niqab and the Danes taking valuables from migrants - channel this anger toward migrants, refugees and even the idea of Europe itself.

He also meets Gabor Vona, the leader of the far-right party Jobbik in Hungary, who claims they are not as interested in demonising minorities as attacking "the Establishment", who he believes are robbing the people.

"Escaping from the Soviet Union, escaping from the communism, we thought joining the democratic European community would also bring us economic success. But then, we had to realise Hungary often appears, for Western companies' or multinational companies' capital, only as a market or cheap source of labour," Vona says.

Horvat finally asks how Europe can free itself in the future.

In this episode Horvat talks to MEP Nigel Farage, professor Noam Chomsky, Belgian youth worker Ihsane Haouach, Dr Corinne Torrekens, author of Islam in Brussels, philosopher Slavoj Zizek, leader of far-right Hungarian party Jobbick Gabor Vona, Hungarian philosophers Agnes Heller and Gaspar Tamas.

French protesters at the Nuit Debout, the Greek No-Middle Man movement, leader of the campaign to remunicipalise Hamburg's electricity grid Wiebke Hanson, the Mayor of Friedland Wilfried Block and Syrian student Ihab Al Saleh, deputy Mayor of Barcelona Gerardo Pisarello and Mayor Ada Colau.

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