Led by telegenic populist politician Jorg Haider, the group last October won 27 percent of the vote in national elections. In early February it became a partner with the conservative People's Party in Austria's governing coalition. Leaders of the other 14 members of the European Union reacted with strong condemnations. Israel recalled its ambassador. Is Europe's right wing on the rise again?

EXTREMISTS SCORE ELECTORAL GAINS

Fueled largely by reaction to a tide of immigrants - especially from Muslim countries - far-right political parties in recent years have made undeniable gains in the hearts and minds of European voters. During the 1990s rightists collected as much as 10 percent or more of the total in some elections in Germany, France, and Italy. As of February 2000, they held legislative seats in four of 16 German states.

In France, mainstream conservative leaders are turning to right-wingers in their efforts to retain political control in five regions after election gains by left-wing parties. Their decision to make deals with the anti-immigrant National Front has triggered nation-wide protest rallies.

Though still heavily outnumbered, extremists also have helped shape national debates throughout Europe, especially about immigration policies. Italy, which pledged to take as many as 10,000 Kosovo refugees during the NATO air strikes, recently announced that it would resume treating people entering from the former Yugoslavia without visas as illegal immigrants instead of refugees.

MOST FAR-RIGHT GROUPS ARE SMALL

Recent successes at the polls notwithstanding, most extreme right-wing groups in Western Europe remain small - certainly too weak to pose any immediate threat to the democratic governments of the European Union, including Austria. Conditions that led to the rise of Nazism and Fascism during the 1920s and 1930s-- economic hard times, severe unemployment and loss of national self-esteem--generally are not factors.

In Spain and Britain, organized extreme right-wing activities in recent years largely have been confined to relatively tiny groups and violent underground organizations. However, small radical groups such as Britain's Combat 18, Sweden's White Aryan Resistance, and Belgium's Flemish Militant Order cast large shadows. Web sites can make an organization appear larger than it is. Individuals or small groups can wreak havoc through terrorism.

Also troubling to law-enforcement authorities are the international connections some of these organizations have formed. One British group with large unexplained funding, The Third Way, has developed contacts in Libya, Iraq, and Croatia. At one point in the mid 1980s Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi met personally with a Spanish army officer to discuss Libyan financing of a new extremist party.

Above-ground right-wing parties uniformly claim to be embarrassed by violence, whether from terrorist bombings or attacks on immigrants. However, they find eager recruits among neo-fascist skinheads who turn up wearing Nazi paraphernalia at soccer games and heavy-metal concerts throughout Europe. Skinheads and other right-wing youth have been notably involved in violent harassment of immigrants and Jews.

AUSTRIA: A WAKEUP CALL?

As for the Freedom Party's recent triumphs in Austria, some observers pointedly recall how another Austrian-born populist politician came to power in 1933 Germany. They view Jorg Haider's sudden prominence as a wakeup call for increased vigilance against the racial supremacist views, religious intolerance, ultranationalism, and violence that have characterized far-right movements in Europe as well as the United States in the years since the end of World War II.

In the words of one British Foreign Office analyst, "In Europe, there can never be room for complacency."

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