All language subtitles for VICE S05E14

President Trump's
immigration policy,

including a proposed border wall

and what's been called
a "Muslim ban,"

sent shock waves
around the world.

We are going to stop

the Syrian refugees

from entering the United States.

We want Trump!

But these issues
are not uniquely American.

The European Union is grappling
with a similar breed

of populist politics
with far-right candidates

making huge gains across Europe.

Fear of foreigners

or doubts
about economic management

have led to a rise
in extremist populist parties.

Great Britain
has already decided

to leave the EU altogether

and the fight over immigration

could determine
Europe's political course

for years to come.

In Hungary, Prime Minister
Viktor Orbán's government

has put this European Union
border country on lockdown.

A 181-mile border fence
was built in 2015

to stop the flow of refugees
from entering the country

from Serbia or Croatia.

National Police chief
Károly Papp

oversees Hungary's
border control operations.

How effective is
the police operation down there?

Hungary's crime rate was
actually on the decline

prior to the fence being built,

but rural farmers
in border towns

were facing practical issues

as the flow of refugees
increased.

How have things changed here
in the last few years?

In order to justify closing
what used to be an open border,

Prime Minister Orbán amplifies
the farmer's fear,

citing terror threats
as the primary reason.

As Europe sees
more and more attacks

by ISIS affiliated terrorists,

populists put the blame
on the increased influx

of refugees
from the Middle East.

As a result,
thousands of refugees

are now being stopped
at the border.

What's it like
to police this area?

After the fence was built,

refugee camps started forming

on the Serbian side
of the border,

where migrants wait
for their opportunity

to sneak into Hungary.

Hi.

Hello.

How are you?

How old are you?

Your age.

11.
All right.

Where are you from?

Afghanistan.

Nice to meet you.

These children,

they're--they're not terrorists,
are they?

That must make you feel
something when you see them.

These decisions come directly
from the Hungarian government.

While many other EU countries

followed Germany's lead
in welcoming the refugees,

Hungary surged to the right,
sealing its borders.

We sat down
with Orbán's spokesman

to find out why.

Why did Hungary see it
as its responsibility

to be the bastions
of law and order

for the European Union,

when Angela Merkel had said

that refugees--

Use--use the proper terms

because up until they have
a legal status

everybody should be called
a migrant.

As a matter of fact,
an illegal migrant.

The European Union is
a community of states

in which there are rules,
and that was our major problem,

actually,
with the German position.

How can you request,
without our consent,

that you don't follow the rules?

Do you think that refugees
have a right to come to Europe?

Nowhere in international law
is it suggested

that you have the right of
freedom without authorization.

You're not allowed
to be naive on that.

Quite a number
of the perpetrators

of the Paris attacks

and the bombing
at the Brussels airport,

they're coming through Hungary

using basically
the illegal flow of migrants

to the European Union.

That's a serious breach
of security.

There are many who,

under the camouflage
of a religion,

extremists would like
to wipe out a civilization.

As Mr. Schuman put it,

one of the founding fathers
of the European Union,

"Europe will be
or should be Christian,

or will not be."

If you want to get rid
of the core values,

then you are getting rid of

the original sense
of that community.

Across the EU,
far-right candidates

are using the immigration debate

to push a nationalist agenda

that's threatening
the very existence

of the EU itself.

The past few years have shown

the biggest increase in votes

for nationalist
and populist parties

in Europe since World War II.

Following Trump's victory
in the U.S.,

the world's eyes turned
to the next election

with a far-right candidate:
Austria,

where Independent
Alexander Van Der Bellen

was fending off Norbert Hofer
of Austria's Freedom Party.

Suddenly,
the left-leaning country

was on the brink of electing
a far-right president

for the first time in decades.

Norbert Hofer, a gun loving,

anti Islam populist

representing the Freedom Party,

founded by Ex-Nazis.

Among the founding members
of the Freedom Party

was high-ranking SS general
Anton Reinthaller

who founded the party

to strengthen
nationalist interests

in post World War II Austria.

We traveled to Austria

as one of Europe's
most polarizing elections

reached its climax.

We're in Vienna, where one of
the most divisive elections

in Austria's recent history
is about to come to an end.

Whether the people here decide
to go left or right

will also decide
what might happen

to the future
of the European Union.

How much is Islamophobia
playing in this election?

Lena took me
to a campaign appearance

by Hofer's opponent
Alexander Van Der Bellen.

Alexander Van Der Bellen!

Across town, Hofer was
also focused on immigration,

but took a hard-line approach
to the crisis.

With the candidates
neck-and-neck,

both sides were out
in full force

before the final
presidential debate.

Hofer!

It's just before
the final presidential debate

and supporters
of the two candidates

are here in a face-off.

What this says about
what's going to happen inside

we'll see.

Mr. Hofer, how will it feel
to become Europe's first

far-right leader since the war?

Umm, first of all,
I'm not the leader,

and second I'm not far-right.

So why do people
describe you as that?

They don't know me.
Not yet.

As is tradition in Austria's
presidential elections,

the press
and both candidates' teams

gather to watch
the final debate backstage

while eating wieners
and drinking beer.

But what started
as a strange Austrian barbecue

gave way to something
that was bizarre

even by U.S. standards.

We've just sat through
the final presidential debate

before the elections.

The only word
that I really understood

throughout the whole thing
was the word "Nazi."

We're now sitting
in the spin room afterwards

where the two candidates
are here.

Hofer, behind me, is sitting
around with his team,

smoking cigarettes,
drinking glasses of wine.

I've never seen anything
really like this.

Some people have described you
as an anti-establishment figure.

Is that accurate?

What happens in the end
of this--this campaign?

The people, they will, uh, vote.

Wow.

I mean, people are crying here.

It's clear that
it means so much to people.

Does this feel like
a different Austria now?

No, because I know
that there's still,

like, nearly 50%
who voted for Hofer, so...

No.
Actually, you have--

you still have to consider,
actually there is

50% super racist people
in Austria.

While Hofer lost in Austria,

the fierce political divide
has spread across Europe.

In France,
a formerly fringe candidate,

Marine Le Pen,
came in second place

on an anti-immigration platform

that could have seen France
leave the EU.

But the most important
election will be in Germany,

the unofficial leader of the EU,

which took in more refugees

than any other European country.

As a result, the once peripheral

far-right populist AfD party
emerged

in direct opposition
to Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Since World War II,

being ultra-right-wing
has been taboo in Germany,

yet the AfD is gaining power

by exploiting
the sharp increase in conflicts

between refugees and locals.

In 2016,
the German Ministry of Interior

reported more than
3 1/2 thousand attacks

on refugees and shelters
throughout the country.

The rural town of Bautzen,

is capturing headlines

with particularly violent
clashes.

Onlookers celebrated
as a fire ripped through

a former hotel
that was being converted

into a shelter for refugees.

Sebastian Berg is well connected

with the local
right wing community.

We joined him and his local
AfD representative

on a tour of the embattled town.

While the right wing claims
that locals need

to protect themselves
from refugees,

the town's largest
refugee center

had to build its own fence

to protect the refugees
from angry locals.

What's the problem
with a place like this?

We went to meet
some of the refugees

that the locals
were living in fear of.

While the majority of migrants
we saw were families,

much of the fear is
of single young men.

Firas has mastered the language,

but is still facing backlash

as he tries to integrate
into society.

Hello, how are you?

- How are you?
- Nice to meet you.

- Yeah.
- I'm Ben.

This young family
fled the resulting chaos

of the U.S. war in Iraq.

Why are you here?

Mama.

With over a million refugees
settled in Germany since 2015,

and anti-immigrant sentiment
on the rise,

the AfD and their leader,

Frauke Petry,
are using the issue

in their bid to unseat
Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Do you think Angela Merkel
has improved Germany

- since her time in power?
- No, I don't think she has.

Because she opened the border
for illegal migration,

to more than a million people
in 2015.

Many of them cannot read,
have not finished school.

Many of them will be
completely dependent

for the rest of their lives
on social benefits,

and if government tells us,

as Merkel did in Autumn 2015,

that we do not have the control
about our borders,

we don't have the control
about who lives in German,

that is basically
the complete failing of a state.

Why was immigration
a central policy

for Trump and for BREXIT

and for the AfD here in Germany?

Immigration was not

a central topic
when we started--

But it's become one for you,
personally.

It's become more important

because situation changed
dramatically.

Why do you think
there's an appetite

for anti-establishment politics
in Germany now?

We have many statistics seen
over the last couple of years

of people not trusting
politicians anymore.

What did politics do
over the last couple of decades

to make people feel excluded?

I think many citizens are fed up

with politicians
not talking to them,

but talking about them

and not taking them seriously,

and that is something that many
people in Europe do not like.

So, yes,
I think it gains momentum,

and I hope it will gain
even more.

"Vice" has been following
the rise

of the far-right in Europe
for many years.

We watched and reported

as nationalism exploded

in response
to the migrant crisis

currently facing Europe.

You wanna keep
the Greek race clean.

Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi

was in many ways modern Europe's
original populist.

He gained massive support
from Italian media outlets,

many of which he owned,

and cultivated
a large political base

by clamping down on immigration
and embracing isolationism.

I met him at his home in Italy

to talk about
what the future holds

for European politics.

Former Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi

is one of
the most outspoken critics

of allowing immigrants
from Syria

and other war-torn countries
into Europe.

The former leader of Italy was

the longest sitting
prime minster

in modern Italian history,

and though his political career
was marred

with controversy, fraud,
and scandal...

He was also one of the
original far-right candidates,

using fear of immigration
to great success,

which set the mold for other
populous candidates in Europe.

So you look at what happened
in Austria recently,

a far-right party came second,
but nearly came first,

and now you have the rise
of the far-right in Germany.

Should Europe be worried

about this sort of rise
of the far-right

in Austria and Germany?

Now what we've seen
this season is that

this anger is often rooted
in the immigration issue,

and it's not just Hungary,
Austria, and Germany...

Oh, shit.

But also in France
where opposition has surged

against the migrant population,

and here in Berlusconi's
home country of Italy,

hundreds of thousands
of refugees

cross the Mediterranean

to begin
their long journey north

into the EU.

You have millions of people
coming from Syria,

from North Africa,
from Afghanistan.

Italy is on the frontlines.

How much is it affecting
Italian politics?

But even larger,
how much is this affecting

politics in Europe?

Now what he means when
he references the Marshall Plan

is approximately
the $130 billion aid project,

which rebuilt
war-devastated regions

of Western Europe in
the aftermath of World War II.

Now the idea is that

the only way to stop immigration

is to actually stop the issues

that are causing it
at their source.

But while he calls
for a unified plan,

other European politicians
are running campaigns

for a more divided Europe.

I interviewed Marine Le Pen
in 2012

as she first began to declare
her anti-immigration

isolationist populist platform.

Le Pen has since made
a huge leap

as this formerly
French candidate

went on to come in second place
in the French elections,

and her party
is not backing down.

Europe, America,
maybe even the world

has a history of going left
and then going right,

and then going left
and then going right.

Right now we seem to be taking
a step to the right.

Why do you think that is?

Where do you see the future
of politics going

in the EU

and what do you worry
most about?

What are your biggest fears?