Far-right parties have surged across Europe, portraying migration as a threat to the continent. Europe faces the dilemma of labor shortages and fears of losing cultural identity.
In part-1 of the documentary 'Rise of the Far Right,' host Jamie Owen travels to Italy to explore why the migration issue is boosting support for the far right and how these parties are making immigration promises they likely can't fulfill.
Watch Part-2 from Saturday July 20
In part-1 of the documentary 'Rise of the Far Right,' host Jamie Owen travels to Italy to explore why the migration issue is boosting support for the far right and how these parties are making immigration promises they likely can't fulfill.
Watch Part-2 from Saturday July 20
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00:00These people are the lucky ones.
00:10It's 9.30 in the morning on the Italian island of Lampedusa,
00:15about 80 miles from the coast of Tunisia in North Africa.
00:19Sometime in the last few weeks,
00:22these migrants made the dangerous crossing to Europe in a small boat
00:27and were picked up by the Italian authorities.
00:31They're mostly young men, a few women and children.
00:34Many of them are clearly exhausted after their journey,
00:38but all seem to be happy to be here.
00:41After some initial checks on Lampedusa,
00:44this ferry is now taking them further into Europe,
00:47where decisions will be made about whether they can stay.
00:53Where are you from? Syria? Syria? Syria? Syria? Syria? Syria?
01:00Have a nice trip. Syria? Bangladesh? Bangladesh? Bangladesh?
01:05Syria. Syria, boys.
01:14It is extraordinary just to be standing here,
01:18to watch hundreds of people desperately hoping for a new life in Europe.
01:26So many different stories coming from so many different countries.
01:31One thing unites them is hope,
01:36hope for better times, better chances,
01:40jobs in another place called Europe.
01:46The thing is, there are huge amounts of people in Europe,
01:52particularly on the far right, who simply do not want this.
01:58They do not want them on this continent.
02:02And their arrival, the far right would say,
02:07poses an enormous threat to our way of life.
02:16EUROPEAN UNION
02:22Thousands of migrants allowed to enter without permission
02:27who end up crowding out the slums of our towns and cities,
02:32undercutting the salaries of our own workers,
02:36and in many instances engaging in crime.
02:40Will we surrender in front of this?
02:43No, we won't.
02:45That's a message that helped propel Giorgia Maloney into power in Italy in 2022,
02:51at the head of its most radical right-wing government in 80 years,
02:56and topped the poll there in the recent European Union Parliament elections.
03:01It was the kind of message that helped Germany's far-right AFD
03:06also make significant gains in that European election.
03:11And the same in France,
03:13where National Rally beat every other French party in that vote.
03:18A result that spurred President Macron to call a national election,
03:23gambling that French voters wouldn't want the far right
03:26actually running their country for the first time since the Second World War.
03:32Thank you very much to all those in the country who didn't listen to any of the predictions.
03:41They didn't.
03:48It was left-wingers from the hastily assembled Popular Front Alliance
03:53who celebrated pushing National Rally into third place.
03:58We'll return to that French election and National Rally's ambitions later.
04:03But why is the far right on the rise?
04:09We're on a journey across Europe to find out, starting at its southern border.
04:21It's a regular sight in Lampedusa,
04:24migrants picked up by the Italian coastguard somewhere between here and the Libyan or Tunisian coast
04:30brought into the island's tiny harbour.
04:42It's their first contact with European soil and it triggers a well-practised operation.
04:49These migrants we're seeing now have been picked up from out at sea.
04:54We don't know the circumstances in which they were rescued,
04:58but presumably they were in a small boat.
05:01They've been picked up by the Italians and taken here.
05:05And as they get off each vessel, you hear the numbers being counted.
05:11One, two, three, four, five, so they know how many passengers are getting off.
05:15Of course you don't hear any names.
05:18From here they're being taken into buses
05:22and from the buses they're driven up to the processing centre on Lampedusa.
05:28Here there are people from the Red Cross, there's an ambulance,
05:33there are doctors and nurses, of course the police are here,
05:37but also a nun welcoming them to the island.
05:46We followed the buses on the five-minute drive to what's known as the hot spot.
05:55This is the end of at least this journey.
05:58This is the processing centre where those migrants came in on the boat
06:02and they're taken by bus.
06:04We're not allowed to go any further.
06:06We're not allowed to go any further.
06:08We're not allowed to go any further.
06:10We're not allowed to go any further.
06:12They're taken by bus.
06:14We're not allowed to go any further, but in here they'll have more medical checks,
06:18they'll have paperwork, at least the start of the paperwork trail,
06:23and they will hope that they haven't moved from one nightmare in the countries they've left
06:30into another, certainly a bureaucratic one.
06:43Many people who try to reach Europe have to be plucked from the sea
06:48when their boat capsizes or sinks.
06:51The Italian Coast Guard says this incident is one of three
06:55which claimed the lives of 20 people in 24 hours in April 2023.
07:01In total more than 3,000 people died crossing the Mediterranean that year,
07:08many hundreds more so far in 2024.
07:14We found this boat washed up on the rocks on Lampedusa.
07:18Most migrants make the crossing in terrible conditions on dangerous seas
07:23in overcrowded wooden or inflatable boats.
07:28If just one of the tubes of the rubber boat starts leaking,
07:32then it deflates and then you find yourself in the water basically
07:36because the rubber boat deflates and you're there.
07:39And the other risk is the bottom of the rubber boat breaking up
07:42and all the people finishing into the water.
07:47The lucky ones are picked up by the authorities or search and rescue charities.
07:54Luca, what do you think is the story with the boat?
07:56What happened here? Do we know?
07:58Yeah, basically this boat was assisted two days ago by one of our patrol boats,
08:04the Aurora, which is one of the boats of Sea Watch,
08:08which is the organisation that does search and rescue at sea.
08:12This boat was spotted by one of our aircraft, Seaboard, two days ago.
08:18It had around 30 people on board.
08:21There were 30 people on board this boat?
08:23Yeah, exactly. So you can imagine 30 people on this small boat.
08:26It's clearly a distress case, so that's why when we spotted the boat
08:30we immediately alerted the authorities because it's a distress case at sea
08:34and needs to be rescued as soon as possible.
08:37Then in the area there was also our ship, Aurora,
08:41which was there to assist eventually boats in distress that were there.
08:47So we also contacted Aurora that arrived on scene.
08:51We distributed life jackets to the people that were on board
08:54because you have to imagine that people on that boat didn't have life jackets,
08:57they didn't have food, they didn't have water,
09:00so as soon as we arrived on scene we distributed these to the people on board
09:04and then we waited with them until the Italian coastguard arrived
09:08and rescued the people and brought them here to Lampedusa to disembark.
09:15The migrant boats are nearly all the same flimsy design
09:19manufactured in bulk for the people smugglers in North Africa.
09:24We don't know the fate of the people in this one in a scrapyard on Lampedusa.
09:29The fate of many who perish on the crossing is also unknown,
09:34their bodies never recovered,
09:36but in the island's cemetery we found a few who'd been given a final resting place.
09:48This is the grave of someone called Esther Ada
09:52and she was born in Nigeria
09:55and she was 18 years old.
10:04There's no name on this grave
10:07but it says the remains of a 20-year-old man lie here
10:13and he was amongst a ship of 53 migrants
10:19and it's thought that he came from sub-Saharan Africa.
10:27This is the grave of someone called Ezekiel
10:32who was born in Nigeria,
10:35who died trying to get to Europe,
10:4036 years old.
10:50The Coast Guard rescued this ship just off the coast of Libya
10:57and there were 271 passengers on board,
11:0336 of them were women and 21 children.
11:0925 of those passengers died of asphyxiation below deck
11:17and six of them are buried here.
11:27For thousands of people who do make it, this is the gateway to Europe.
11:32They're drawn here by the prospect of work,
11:35filling big gaps in the continent's labour markets.
11:38They're just a small fraction compared to the millions
11:42who arrive every year by authorised routes with visas.
11:46But it's images like these that far-right parties have seized on
11:50across the continent to claim
11:52European Christian civilisation is being swamped.
12:03Good evening. Good evening to all.
12:09Time seems to be stopping,
12:12but now I'm going to my queen
12:15to tell her all that my eyes have seen and my ears have heard.
12:22But there are people in Lampedusa
12:24who reject how the far-right frames the migration issue
12:28as a threat to European Christian culture.
12:32It's not like that.
12:34There are many Christians among the migrants,
12:37Coptic Christians, Christians...
12:39It's not like that.
12:41There are Muslims, there are Christians,
12:44but I don't think that's the problem.
12:47The problem is, we should ask ourselves
12:50why people leave their country,
12:53what are the causes that push hundreds of thousands of people
12:57to leave their country
13:00But those more welcoming voices are not making policy.
13:05NGOs, charities and other critics say
13:08deals the EU has done with North African countries
13:11mean it's outsourced its migration policy,
13:14effectively paying them to stop people reaching Europe.
13:19The result, they say, seems like these.
13:23You are endangering the people.
13:27Sea-Watch accuses the Libyan Coast Guard
13:30of firing towards migrants in boats.
13:35They're shooting again.
13:37So-called Libyan Coast Guard, stop shooting in the water.
13:42So-called Libyan Coast Guard, what you do is very dangerous.
13:48Over.
13:49Forcing people out and setting fire to their vessel
13:53in another instance.
13:55We continue to...
13:59Life-saving is everyone's responsibility,
14:02according to the European Commission.
14:05But its Migration Commissioner accuses the Libyan Coast Guard
14:09of being infiltrated by criminals.
14:13Sea-Watch says this shows the Libyan Coast Guard
14:16using a boat supplied by Italy
14:18and identical to its own Coast Guard vessels
14:21to interfere with a rescue operation by the charity Doctors Without Borders.
14:26What are they doing?
14:28Previous Italian governments have made things harder for NGOs.
14:32But Sea-Watch says the current one is turning the screws.
14:37So what they are trying to do is to slow down the operation of NGOs,
14:42also, for example, by assigning a place of safety
14:45to disembark the people that were rescued at sea
14:49so up to Genoa, to Ravenna.
14:51That means that once the vessel NGO is rescuing a boat at sea,
14:56then they have to navigate for four days to arrive at the port
15:00where they can disembark, where usually in the past it was...
15:03And according to international law,
15:05the port that is being assigned has to be the closest one.
15:08And usually it was ports in Sicily
15:10that were possible to reach in, like, one day.
15:13So what they are trying to do is to slow down NGOs' work,
15:17to keep them away from the area of operation.
15:20Libyan Coast Guard, Libyan Coast Guard,
15:22we are observing your reckless operation.
15:25We are observing your reckless operation.
15:28There is a close rescue asset, Humanity One,
15:31which was already in the rescue of those people.
15:35You are interfering in this rescue.
15:38Now there are people in the water.
15:40There are many people in the water because of your reckless operation.
15:44Please head back from the scene.
15:46Please head back from the scene. Over.
15:51This sculpture symbolises Lampedusa's role as the door to Europe.
15:56To explain why the far right is so determined to slam the real door shut,
16:01and why that's delivering them electoral success,
16:04we need to head north, further into the heart of Europe.
16:09All roads, it used to be said, lead to Rome.
16:13Italy's capital draws millions of tourists every year,
16:17fascinated by the ancient remains of the Roman Empire,
16:21dating back over 2,000 years.
16:24Rome was also the centre of attention in 2022,
16:28when Giorgio Maloney became Prime Minister
16:31at the head of a coalition of European states.
16:34When Giorgio Maloney became Prime Minister
16:37at the head of a coalition between her right-wing Brothers of Italy party
16:41and the even more radical Salvini League.
16:45Still in power, it's Italy's most right-wing government
16:49since the end of the Second World War, nearly 80 years ago.
16:56Benito Mussolini.
16:58Loudly threatening war unless France handed over to Italy
17:01whole chunks of our rich North African Empire.
17:04You can still feel the presence of the man who took Italy into that war,
17:08the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
17:12This is the balcony where he addressed the crowds in the centre of Rome.
17:17Some feared Maloney's election meant Italy was reviving that extreme right-wing past
17:22because of the neo-fascist roots of her own party.
17:27She was at pains to reject that shortly before she became Prime Minister.
17:48We'll look at whether fascism is just history,
17:52why the migration issue is boosting support for the far-right across Europe,
17:57how far-right parties are making promises on immigration they probably can't deliver,
18:04and what the rise of nationalist populist parties means for the future of the EU.
18:11Within a year of being elected on a promise to cut immigration,
18:15Giorgio Maloney visited Lampedusa with the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
18:21and promised to take tougher measures.
18:25We will take the norm to extend, as far as is allowed by European rules,
18:31the treatment of those who come to Italy irregularly
18:36and we will send a message to the Minister of Defence to act immediately
18:39to realise the necessary structures.
18:49It's the kind of tough message that has won her party support
18:53even in regions a long way from where the boats land.
19:00This is L'Aquila, the capital city of the Abruzzo.
19:04This beautiful region across the mountains east of Rome
19:08is where Giorgio Maloney's party got some of its earliest electoral successes
19:13before taking power nationally and boosting the confidence of the far-right across Europe.
19:20Grazie.
19:21It's also an area with a tragic history of natural disaster.
19:32Think of Italy and maybe somewhere like this comes to mind,
19:37a sun-kissed piazza enjoying a coffee,
19:41but they're also rebuilding here after the devastating earthquake back in 2009
19:48which claimed the lives of over 300 people.
19:52As you can probably hear, they're flat out trying to reconstruct the centre.
19:58But this is also perhaps the epicentre of a political earthquake
20:03that's rumbling here and far, far beyond.
20:08The mayor of this city from the Brothers of Italy party says
20:19its role in starting that political earthquake is down to paying attention to local issues,
20:25but the question of immigration is never far away.
20:38Italy has become a mayor, just like Abruzzo was the first region
20:43where an exponent of the Brothers of Italy became a governor.
20:48I believe that the success of our electoral proposal here in the city
20:54depends on the perception that the current administration
20:59is immersed in the problems of the city.
21:02And the problems of the city, on the subject of migration for example,
21:07are twofold.
21:09In the sense that we are naturally attentive to the needs of the citizens
21:15who are not Italian, just as we are attentive to the needs of Italian citizens,
21:21just as we don't hide the fact that uncontrolled immigration creates tensions.
21:30And this has also happened in this city, with the underprivileged
21:34who are responsible for crimes,
21:38especially related to space and crimes against people.
21:44And also, let's say, from behaviors that have undermined
21:49the peaceful coexistence with forms of incivility.
21:53But perhaps it's not surprising that a regional area like the Abruzzo
21:57has shifted so radically to the right.
22:01It may reflect not just a European, but a global trend.
22:05The political historian Giovanni Orsino puts it like this.
22:10People think they've been betrayed and they are angry about this.
22:15And if you look at how the voters are behaving across the Western world,
22:21you see that there is now a very deep divide between the big cities,
22:28above all the center areas of the big cities, and the rural areas.
22:32People who live in small centers in rural areas that feel cut off from the global world,
22:40and people who live in the big cities that are like the knots of the global network,
22:47the crossing points of the global networks.
22:51You see this essentially everywhere.
22:54It is quite clear that this backlash, this political anger,
22:59is related to the fact that you think that your local communitarian way of life
23:06is threatened by globalization.
23:09Or the other option, you feel that globalization is good for you
23:14because you live in one of the elements of the global network.
23:20And it is quite clear that this is the division now,
23:23and it is quite clear that the local elites of the periphery
23:29are angry at the global elites of the centers.
23:37That anger has many sources.
23:39The cost of living crisis, climate policy, even issues like gender.
23:44But the arrival of thousands of migrants is near the top of the list.
23:50However, L'Aquila also provides other insights,
23:54how migrants can often make great success stories,
23:57and of the economic pressures driving the very immigration which is provoking the backlash.
24:03Pedro. Thank you for having me. Good to see you. Thanks for your time.
24:09Looking forward to your restaurant.
24:12Looking forward to the food even more. Thank you.
24:16Pedro came from Albania in the 1990s,
24:19living in an abandoned bus while learning to be a chef.
24:24And what's going in here? This is the calamari.
24:32And is this a traditional Albanian dish or a traditional Italian dish?
24:38No, it's an Italian dish.
24:41Italiano. Italian dish. Pedro Italian dish.
24:47That looks good.
24:50This is asparagus? Yes, asparagus.
24:54Because the first time I arrived in Italy,
24:57after a year, as an unwanted person, they sent me to Albania again.
25:03But then I insisted. I insisted and I came back.
25:08For the first years I lived in Italy, in L'Aquila, I was a clandestine.
25:16Now he owns a restaurant that can serve 270 diners at a time,
25:21and employs 12 staff.
25:24As Italy's population gets older and the workforce shrinks,
25:28he's open about the need for more migrant labour from outside Europe.
25:36Excellent.
25:58Today, I don't know if I should say unfortunately or fortunately,
26:02we have to open the doors to Asian migration, to Africa.
26:09It's become important.
26:12But we have to open the doors in the right way,
26:16not with boats, not with all the boats that sink and all that.
26:23We have to set very precise rules.
26:26But immigration has existed, it exists and it will exist forever.
26:29Nobody can stop it.
26:32Like many developed countries,
26:34Italy's birth rate has been declining for decades
26:37and is well below the level needed to stop the population falling.
26:42Far-right parties across Europe say increasing births,
26:45not immigration, must be the answer.
26:48But that would take decades.
26:50Georgia Maloney says Italy cannot sustain the current level of illegal migration.
26:57But since she took power, Italy has actually accepted more migrants,
27:02in part because of the pressure from businesses like Pedro's.
27:06According to data from the UN Agency for Refugees,
27:09in 2023, just last year,
27:11there were about 114,000 migrants arriving to Italy by sea.
27:15That was up from 105,000 the previous year,
27:19which in turn was twice the amount of refugees that had come in 2021.
27:24The irony about Maloney specifically is that,
27:27at least in a few instances,
27:29she has taken measures that go squarely against
27:32her and her party's traditionally anti-migrant stance.
27:35There is, for instance, this measure that offers temporary permits
27:39to seasonal migrant workers.
27:42It used to be at around 80,000 back in 2022,
27:45but there were thrice as many entrepreneurs
27:48looking to hire those seasonal migrant workers,
27:51and only one in three got those permits.
27:53She comes into office the following year,
27:55she almost doubled the amount of those migrant permits,
27:58which are now standing at about 150,000 per year,
28:01over the 2023 to 2025 period.
28:04The bottom line is that there's a clear demand for migrant labour there,
28:07and there are clear economic advantages to it.
28:11So Georgia Maloney has bowed to economic reality,
28:14and in practice has behaved like a mainstream politician.
28:18Yet she still seems really popular,
28:20despite failing to cut immigration.
28:23So why aren't the voters more angry?
28:27Maloney couldn't really stop the migrant waves.
28:31And she said so herself.
28:34She said, I thought I could do more, but I couldn't do more.
28:39So she recognized that her migration policy essentially failed
28:44because she thought she could stop the migrants
28:47or at least manage the immigration fluxes more.
28:50So one could say, look, Maloney promised she would stop the migrants.
28:54She failed. The voters should be angry.
28:57As a matter of fact, the voters are not angry
29:00because they recognize that she tried
29:04and that she at least puts herself in harmony
29:10with the worries of her electorate.
29:13And that for the voters is enough,
29:16at least vis-à-vis other parties that didn't even recognize those worries.
29:23Perhaps that's why Brothers of Italy activists
29:26put a subtly different spin on the issue
29:29as they prepared for a regional election
29:32in the Abruzzo's biggest city, Pescara.
30:02We have to control who comes and why,
30:05and above all, offer them a life
30:08that is certainly not the one they offered before Giorgia Maloney
30:12to the people who came to Italy.
30:15We have to respect the person.
30:18And this can only be done if the immigration is controlled
30:21so as to be able to manage it in Italy and also abroad.
30:27When a group of people at a far-right commemoration in Rome
30:31were filmed in January 2024
30:34giving the salute used by Mussolini's fascists,
30:38it caused uproar across Europe.
30:51Maloney was challenged to condemn it,
30:54not least because her Brothers of Italy party
30:57has its roots in what was originally a neo-fascist organization.
31:01Its flame logo reflects that.
31:04We could find no record she issued the condemnation her critics demanded,
31:08although she has censured a similar incident in her party's youth wing.
31:18There was more controversy in May
31:21when the Italian army's calendar celebrated soldiers
31:24who had fought for Mussolini's regime
31:27as well as against German occupiers after 1943.
31:32The defence ministry denied trying to rehabilitate fascism.
31:37The ambiguous attitude of Maloney's party prompted this question.
31:42Are you fascists?
31:51We support all forms of totalitarianism.
31:54Fascism is one of them.
31:57We are absolutely out of that line.
32:00Being right-wing does not mean being fascist.
32:04They are two completely different things.
32:07So Fratelli d'Italia is simply a right-wing party.
32:11Are you fascists?
32:13No. Absolutely not.
32:17Maloney's party, Brothers of Italy,
32:20is most certainly a right-wing party.
32:23Whether it is far right, I think,
32:26above all now, after 18 months of government,
32:29I think that can be discussed.
32:32Because bottom line, this party is playing the Atlantic's game,
32:36is playing the European game.
32:39It's respecting entirely the Italian constitution.
32:43Nothing has been done about individual rights.
32:47So is this a far right party?
32:50I think this is a right-wing party.
32:55Maloney has been called a chameleon,
32:58presenting different faces internationally and domestically.
33:02But while she may not at the moment be driving Italy back to the fascist past,
33:07many Italians from a migrant background
33:10fear the impact of her party's anti-immigration rhetoric.
33:18Steve Emajuru was a refugee from the Biafran War in Nigeria
33:23over 40 years ago,
33:25and despite some horrific experiences,
33:28tries to build bridges between cultures.
33:32Hey!
33:37What kind of racism have you had to deal with?
34:01You don't know about your life, your tradition, your culture.
34:06Maybe it will bring down the rate of discrimination and racism.
34:12So I know Italy is a very good country.
34:16I love Italy.
34:19I'm an Italian.
34:22Despite the optimism and willingness to connect,
34:25he has a rather cynical view of the motives of radical right politicians.
34:32Ah!
34:35As a continent, Africa is being used for campaign,
34:41putting fears into the Italian citizens
34:44that Africans who have come here to substitute the Italian community.
34:51So they have been earning, getting their votes,
34:55talking against Africa,
34:57talking against blacks,
34:59discriminating against blacks.
35:01So they are using the discrimination, racism, to earn votes.
35:06For European elections, it will be the worst.
35:10A message echoed by a high-profile Italian journalist
35:14with a Moroccan family background
35:16who says she's getting more abuse online
35:18and the government has emboldened racists.
35:30The right-wing parties, extreme right-wing parties,
35:35not only of Giorgia Meloni, but also of the League of Matteo Selvini,
35:39and obviously the more these parties have grown over time
35:43and the more this wave of racism has grown.
35:47And even today that Giorgia Meloni is in power,
35:50nothing has changed.
35:52Indeed, those racists who a few years ago,
35:56maybe even in a less daring way,
36:00allowed themselves to externalise some racist sentences,
36:04today they are much more proud to do so and are no longer afraid.
36:10But Brothers of Italy activists insist they aren't racists.
36:15Is your party just about migration?
36:26It's probably very old, but very old,
36:29but very old, not recent.
36:32We are absolutely not a racist party, absolutely,
36:37denied by the daily facts of our daily life, of our politics.
36:42We want to solve the problem of immigration,
36:45but not excluding, finding a solution to the whole issue,
36:50because we are inclusive and we have shown it in many ways.
36:56Whatever its record on immigration,
36:59it's not hard to find examples
37:01of how the government's anti-migration rhetoric
37:04conflicts with economic reality.
37:11Vincenzo Saccone, an Italian brought up in England,
37:15moved here to set up a kiwi fruit farm,
37:18just half an hour outside Rome.
37:20But Italians are having fewer babies.
37:23The population is ageing and becoming more urbanised,
37:26so, like Pedro, the restaurateur, he struggles to find labour,
37:30at least legal labour.
37:33But the problem is they don't like working in the farms, probably,
37:38the Italians. That's the biggest problem.
37:41So what you want is easy immigration?
37:44That's it. The bureaucracy is the one that stops us,
37:49and then we have all the...
37:52When we are picking, all the Italian government
37:56sends the inspectors to...
37:59And if they catch you, they close your farm.
38:02You're joking? Really? Is that serious?
38:04Really. That is serious.
38:06It's 6,000 euros of fine for every extra community,
38:12and then they block you.
38:14Until you pay all the fines, you cannot pick.
38:17So what happens if you can't fix this shortage of staff?
38:22What happens to the farm and your business?
38:25Yes, we're in difficulty.
38:27We can't pick.
38:29If we need... It takes, instead of a week, it will take a month,
38:33and then the fruit goes mature.
38:35That's the problem.
38:37And they don't understand this, but, you know,
38:40because then you have to get guys who are with no permission
38:43or something to come and work.
38:46It's the other way.
38:49Zeeshan Ahmed, one of Vincenzo's workers, has all his papers now.
38:54But like many, after fleeing his home country, Pakistan,
38:58he took an expensive, dangerous and unauthorised journey
39:02via Iran, Turkey, and a boat to reach here three years ago.
39:15Zeeshan Ahmed, one of Vincenzo's workers, has all his papers now.
39:46Zeeshan Ahmed, one of Vincenzo's workers, has all his papers now.
40:00As the European elections approached,
40:03centre-left parties knew talking about immigration
40:06meant letting the far right set the agenda,
40:09even though the economic case for it seemed obvious.
40:13Why aren't politicians simply honest and tell us,
40:17we all need immigration?
40:44The only solution is just to close borders and that's it.
40:48Now, of course, you need to have a regular immigration.
40:51That's the point. People that come in irregularly is a problem.
40:58There were protests in April 2024
41:01when the EU Parliament approved new rules
41:04making it harder to enter Europe
41:06and easier to send back failed asylum seekers.
41:10The sign the far right was already exerting an influence on policy,
41:14but also a recognition that reducing immigration
41:18needs Europe-wide coordination.
41:22In recent months, far right leaders have put on displays of unity
41:26like this one in Spain.
41:28But can they now work together to change Europe?
41:33There are red lines in Europe
41:36and some of these right-wing parties are on this side of the red line.
41:41Others are on the opposite side of the red line
41:44and this makes it very difficult for these parties to work together.
41:48Now, what they can do is to create veto blocks,
41:53also together with the European People's Party.
41:57So there is the possibility for them to work to block things they don't like.
42:03For instance, on environmental policies.
42:07So there might be in the coming European Parliament
42:12a veto right-wing majority
42:15comprising the far right, the right and the centre-right.
42:20What they cannot do presently is to work together
42:24so to create a positive majority.
42:27The far right is an extraordinary force to say no.
42:31No to the world as it is.
42:33No to progress. No to Europe.
42:36No to a globalised economy.
42:38Very good, they know how to do that.
42:40But they say yes to what?
42:42Where does the far right want to take the European people?
42:47Except to bring them back to the world before them.
42:51That is, to the world of the 1930s,
42:53to the world of the nations that had receded from their national interests
42:57and who had confronted them.
43:01When Italy turned sharp right two years ago,
43:04there were fears it was returning to its fascist past.
43:08Those fears have not been realised so far.
43:11But the growth of the far right in a host of other countries
43:15is posing similar questions, including Portugal.
43:22This is our country.
43:23It's not for people who don't like their lives there
43:26to come here and do whatever they want. No.
43:28And if they want to come here, they have to work.
43:31And they have to respect our culture.
43:33It's not you go to Lisbon downtown and you see, like, it's Bangladesh.
43:38It's not Bangladesh, it's Portugal.
43:41Germany.
43:45Your critics will say you're a bunch of Nazis.
43:48You are, aren't you?
43:59And France.
44:01Does all this debate around immigration
44:04make you feel ashamed to be French?
44:28It's those countries we visit next time.