The natural corollary for any “nationalist” party is a discrimination against “non-nationals”. In fact it is very difficult to be a “nationalist” without also being xenophobic. In many countries in Europe the nationalist parties are very often also anti-immigrant and inherently racist to varying degrees. Nationalist, racist parties are usually on the far-right and often have a Nazi or a neo-Nazi past
Ruth Wodak …… divided these parties into four groups: “parties [that] gain support via an ambivalent relationship with fascist and Nazi pasts” (e.g., in Austria, Hungary, Italy, Romania, and France), parties that “focus primarily on a perceived threat from Islam” (e.g., in the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland), parties that “restrict their propaganda to a perceived threat to their national identities from ethnic minorities” (e.g., in Hungary, Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom) and parties that “endorse a fundamentalist Christian conservative-reactionary agenda” (e.g., in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria)
Occasionally the nationalists come from the far-left as with Syriza in Greece or the far-left parties in Portugal. The Scottish Nationalist Party is about as far left as you can get without being just another Communist Party. But it is now becoming clear that the SNP also has a nucleus of not only xenophobic but also anti-semitic views. In the latest instance the party and the party leader have had to apologise abjectly for one of their member’s “grotesque” anti-semitic views.
Daily Mail: A Scottish Nationalist MSP was at the centre of a race-hate storm last night after sharing an anti-Semitic image online which was compared to the ‘very worst of Nazi propaganda’. Sandra White made a humiliating apology to a Jewish group which condemned the ‘bizarre and hateful’ image she circulated to her thousands of followers on social media website Twitter.
But campaigners said that she should be disciplined for ‘retweeting’ the disturbing cartoon. A petition, which had 500 supporters last night, was launched by campaigners calling on the Glasgow Kelvin MSP to quit. ………. As the row intensified last night, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon apologised to the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (ScoJec) for the ‘abhorrent’ post, which Mrs White insisted she had accidentally retweeted.
That this is not an isolated incident is apparent from the recent headlines:
- SNP MP told racist cybernat to ‘keep it up’ – The Scotsman, Jul 20, 2015 – AN SNP MP actively encouraged and supported a Twitter troll who has posted racist comments online and pictures of No voters being hung …
- SNP is openly racist towards the English, says Nigel Farage … Apr 28, 2015 – He said: “The SNP are openly racist. The anti-English hostility and the kind of language that is used about and towards English people is totally …
- Scotland’s only Chinese SNP councillor Yen Hongmei Jin … Aug 8, 2015 – Ms Jin says she was forced to resign from her seat as SNP councillor on the … SNP councillor Yen Hongmei Jin quits over ‘racism and bullying’.
- to wonder why the SNP aren’t getting the same bashing that UKIP … Why is no-one calling SNP supporters racist? … The SNP have gone on about wanting more immigration and wanting it made easier for immigrants on student …
- SNP and its activists ‘openly racist’ – The Independent Apr 29, 2015 – The Scottish National Party and its activists are “openly racist” towards the English and Nicola Sturgeon has done nothing to discourage the …
If you are nationalist enough, you have little choice but to be racist.