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Left and right across Europe

Paying attention

Letters to the Editor. Illustration: Paul Scott
The Irish Times - Letters to the Editor.

Sir, – Your editorial “The Irish Times view on the Austrian election: more evidence of the rise of the far-right” (October 1st) describes “the remorseless march of the nationalist, anti-immigrant right continues across Europe”.

The piece explains that “a year of far-right gains opened with Robert Fico in Slovakia last September”. Mr Fico is a left-wing politician and has been since he first entered politics in 1999.

What Robert Fico and the elected far-right populists do have in common is an extremist opposition to the type and scale of immigration in their respective countries. If we paid attention, it should be obvious that their demagoguery on that single issue is what got them elected. – Yours, etc,

COLM AHERN,

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Clonsilla,

Dublin 15.