Far-right parties gain ground in Europe

ISTANBUL (AA) - As right-wing parties gain ground in European elections -- passing electoral thresholds, entering national assemblies and even joining coalition governments -- the Czech Republic is seeing its own populist group inch closer to power.

The recently established Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) won nearly 10 percent of about five million votes cast in last week's Czech general election, according to official results.

The party -- founded in 2015 and which just started campaigning in July this year -- was an unexpected winner in the Czech contest.

Andor Meszaros, a lecturer and Central Europe expert at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, told Anadolu Agency the reason behind the far-right rise across Europe was the refugee crisis fueled by the Syrian civil war.

"Due to the refugee crisis, these politics also took hold in the Czech Republic," Meszaros said.

Championing anti-migration policies, the SPD has also displayed open hostility to Islam, with party leader Tomio Okamura telling reporters after last weekend’s vote he opposed what he called “Islamization” as well as migration.

Although the election's main winners, the anti-establishment ANO party of billionaire Andrej Babis, ruled out a coalition with the SPD, the far-right has been emboldened.

Elsewhere, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the third-largest party in the federal parliament after winning 12.6 percent of the vote in elections late last month.

In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party of Austria has started to talk with the leading Austrian People's Party to become a junior party in a coalition after getting 26 percent vote in this month's election.

*Mehmet Yilmaz in Budapest contributed to this story.