Chapter 31: Authoritarian Thinking

130      three groups coordinated six gruesome attacks on  “What You Need to Know About Paris Attacks and the Situation in France,” Le Monde, November 14, 2015, updated March 28, 2022, www.lemonde.fr/en/archives/article/2022/03/23/what-you-need-to-know-about-paris-attacks-and-the-situation-in-france_5979045_113.html.

130      killing 130 people  “Paris Attacks Death Toll Rises to 130,” RTÉ News, November 20, 2015, www.rte.ie/news/2015/1120/747897-paris/.

130      injuring more than 400  “Mass Offered in Glasgow for Paris Terror Victims,” BBC News, November 18, 2015, www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-34858631.

130      Islamic State claimed responsibility, framing the attacks as revenge  “Islamic State Group Claims Deadly Paris Attacks,” France 24, November 14, 2015, www.france24.com/en/20151114-paris-attacks-islamic-state-group-claim-terrorism-jihadists-syria.

130      primarily French or Belgian nationals of Moroccan or Algerian descent “Paris Attacks: Who Were the Attackers?” BBC News, April 27, 2016, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34832512.

130      pretending to be migrants escaping the Syrian civil war  “Paris Attacks Death Toll Rises to 130,” www.rte.ie/news/2015/1120/747897-paris/.

130      the 387,000 Syrians who applied  Phillip Connor, “Number of Refugees to Europe Surges to Record 1.3 Million in 2015,” Pew Research Center, August 2, 2016, www.pewresearch.org/global/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/08/Pew-Research-Center-Europe-Asylum-Report-FINAL-August-2-2016.pdf, 15.

130      “necessary systematic and coordinated checks . . .” Bernard Cazeneuve quoted in Jon Henley and Ian Traynor, “Movements of Isis Extremist Prior to Paris Attack Raise EU Security Questions,” The Guardian, November 19, 2015, www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/19/movements-of-isis-extremist-prior-to-paris-attack-raises-eu-security-questions.

130      “mastermind” of the attacks “Paris Attacks Death Toll Rises to 130,” www.rte.ie/news/2015/1120/747897-paris/.

130      at least twice in the year prior, despite . . . warrants for his arrest  Henley and Traynor, “Movements of Isis Extremist Prior to Paris Attack Raise EU Security Questions,” www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/19/movements-of-isis-extremist-prior-to-paris-attack-raises-eu-security-questions.

130      “Everyone must understand Europe has to organise, recover . . .” Cazeneuve quoted in Henley and Traynor, “Movements of Isis Extremist Prior to Paris Attack Raise EU Security Questions,” www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/19/movements-of-isis-extremist-prior-to-paris-attack-raises-eu-security-questions.

130      “a significant negative effect on attitudes toward immigrants . . .” Mónica Ferrín et al., “Terrorist Attacks and Europeans’ Attitudes Towards Immigrants: An Experimental Approach,” European Journal of Political Research 59, no. 3 (August 2020), ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1475-6765.12362, 491.

131       “authoritarian thinking” when they perceived a grave threat to their safety . . .  Marc J. Hetherington and Elizabeth Suhay, “Authoritarianism, Threat, and Americans' Support for the War on Terror,” American Journal of Political Science 55, no. 3 (July 2011), www.jstor.org/stable/23024936, 546.

131       a “strongman” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2021), 10-15. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1233267123.

131       “We haven’t heard rhetoric like this in Europe . . .”  Morgan Johansson quoted in Katya Adler, “Sweden Far-Fight arty Makes Gains from Migrant Crisis,” BBC News, November 11, 2015, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34784424.

131       “Not only the French, all Europeans are at war . . .”  Giorgia Meloni, Twitter, November 13, 2015, 6:45 p.m, x.com/GiorgiaMeloni/status/665314594055819264. Screenshot in tweet translated via Google Translate. Tweet archived at archive.today, February 9, 2026 capture, archive.ph/hNsCG.

131       “France and the French are no longer safe” Marine Le Pen quoted in Adam Nossiter, “Marine Le Pen’s Anti-Islam Message Gains Influence in France,” New York Times, November 17, 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/world/europe/marine-le-pens-anti-islam-message-gains-influence-in-france.html.

131       “expel foreigners who preach hatred on our soil” Le Pen quoted in Nossiter, “Marine Le Pen’s Anti-Islam Message Gains Influence in France,” www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/world/europe/marine-le-pens-anti-islam-message-gains-influence-in-france.html.

131       won about 27 percent of the vote  Jethro Mullen and Tim Hume, “France’s National Front Thwarted in Regional Elections,” CNN, December 14, 2015, www.cnn.com/2015/12/14/europe/france-regional-elections-second-round/index.html. And another study found the more fearful voters were after the Paris attacks, the less likely they were to support the National Front in the 2015 elections. And the angrier they were after the attacks, the more likely they were to support Le Pen’s party. Pavlos Vasilopoulos et al., “Applying the Theory of Affective Intelligence to Support for Authoritarian Policies and Parties,” Advances in Political Psychology 40, no. 1 (February 2019), 690. Access the journal article at onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pops.12571.

131       founded Svoboda a Přímá Demokracie  “Factsheet: Freedom and Direct Democracy (Svoboda a přímá demokracie, SPD),” Bridge Initiative, Georgetown University, August 27, 2020, accessed via Wayback Machine, September 28, 2020 capture, web.archive.org/web/20200928121318/bridge.georgetown.edu/research/factsheet-freedom-and-direct-democracy-svoboda-a-prima-demokracie-spd/.

131       “Jews, homosexuals and gypsies should be gassed” Jaroslav Staník quoted in Jitka Votavová, “Crime Report Filed after Czech Politician Calls for Murder of Minorities,” Romea.cz, November 20, 2017, romea.cz/en/news/czech/crime-report-filed-after-czech-politician-calls-for-murder-of-minorities.

131       “was not fenced”  Tomio Okamura quoted in František Bikár, “Czech MP Marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day by Doubting What Happened at Romani Genocide Site,” Romea.cz, January 30, 2018, romea.cz/en/czech-republic/czech-mp-marks-international-holocaust-remembrance-day-by-doubting-what-happened-at-romani-genocide-site.

131       approximately 1,300 Roma people imprisoned . . . sent to their deaths . . .  Lety was one of two camps in Nazi Germany’s Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia “where entire families of Moravian and Czech Roma and Sinti were forcibly concentrated before being transported to the concentration and extermination camp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau . . . During the period of its existence (August 1942–August 1943), approximately 1,300 men, women and children passed through the camp. It is certain that a total of 326 people died in Lety, most of the victims were children.” It is estimated that the Nazis killed 21,000 Roma people at the Auschwitz complex, which included Auschwitz-Birkenau, between 1940 and 1945. To learn more about the concentration camp in Lety, as well as Auschwitz-Birkenau, which operated as a killing center during Lety’s period of operation, see “Lety u Písku. The Memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in Bohemia.” Muzeum Romské Kultury (Museum of Romani Culture), accessed January 24, 2025, www.rommuz.cz/en/lety-u-pisku/; “March 1, 1942: Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp Established,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, accessed January 24, 2025, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/timeline-event/holocaust/1942-1945/auschwitz-birkenau-camp-established; and “Auschwitz,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, March 16, 2015, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/auschwitz.

131       “were free to come and go” Okamura quoted in Bikár, “Czech MP Marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day by Doubting What Happened at Romani Genocide Site,” romea.cz/en/czech-republic/czech-mp-marks-international-holocaust-remembrance-day-by-doubting-what-happened-at-romani-genocide-site.

131       its best-ever performance  Flemming Rose, “6 Takeaways from the Danish Elections,” Politico, June 19, 2015, www.politico.eu/article/six-takeaways-from-the-danish-elections/.

131       pushing . . . to tighten immigration laws  David Crouch and Lars Eriksen, “Danish People’s Party Leader Demands Border Crackdown After Election Success,” The Guardian, June 19, 2015, www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/19/danish-peoples-party-dahl-border-controls-election; Henriette Jacobsen, “Liberals Form Small, Minority Government in Denmark,” Euractiv, June 27, 2015, www.euractiv.com/section/elections/news/liberals-form-small-minority-government-in-denmark/; and “Danish Prime Minister Plans Tighter Controls on Refugees, Migrants,” Reuters, November 11, 2015, www.reuters.com/article/world/danish-prime-minister-plans-tighter-controls-on-refugees-migrants-idUSKCN0T01M6/.

131–132 amassed the highest proportion of votes  Marlène Gerber and Sean Mueller, “4 Cool Graphs That Explain Sunday’s Swiss Elections,” Washington Post, October 23, 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/10/23/4-cool-graphs-that-explain-sundays-swiss-elections/.

132      secured a majority of seats Associated Press in Warsaw, “Rightwing Law and Justice Party Wins Overall Majority in Polish Election,” The Guardian, October 27, 2015, www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/27/poland-law-justice-party-wins-235-seats-can-govern-alone.

132      Duda’s election to the presidency earlier in the year International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) Election Guide, “Polish Presidency Round 2,” May 10, 2015, last updated June 21, 2024, accessed January 27, 2025, www.electionguide.org/elections/id/2684/.

132      apologizing for Polish complicity in the Holocaust  Bronisław Komorowski had apologized “in recent years for the massacre that Polish farmers perpetrated against their Jewish neighbors in Jedwabne. The 1941 Jedwabne pogrom, in which dozens of Jews were burned alive by villagers who trapped them inside a barn.” During the debate, Komorowski stated, “The nation of victims was also the nation of perpetrators.” See Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “Polish President Reiterates Country’s Holocaust Complicity,” Times of Israel, May 23, 2015, www.timesofisrael.com/polish-president-reiterates-countrys-holocaust-complicity/.

132      “attempt to destroy Poland’s good name”  Andrzej Duda quoted in JTA, “Polish President Reiterates Country’s Holocaust Complicity,” www.timesofisrael.com/polish-president-reiterates-countrys-holocaust-complicity/.

132      assertion that . . . invasion of migrants along its eastern border with Belarus Lydia Gall, “Polish Government Ups Anti-Migrant Rhetoric Ahead of Elections,” Human Rights Watch, October 6, 2023, www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/06/polish-government-ups-anti-migrant-rhetoric-ahead-elections.

132      as a harmful “ideology” that seeks to replace “traditional” values “Polish LGBTQ Crowds March to Demand Equal Rights as Election Looms,” Reuters, June 17, 2023, www.reuters.com/world/europe/polish-lgbtq-march-seeks-show-strength-election-looms-2023-06-17/.

132      opposed gay marriage and adoption  “Polish LGBTQ Crowds March to Demand Equal Rights as Election Looms,” www.reuters.com/world/europe/polish-lgbtq-march-seeks-show-strength-election-looms-2023-06-17/.

132      pushed for local governments to create “LGBT-free zones”  “Data from across the country shows that the overwhelming majority of local councillors supporting the resolutions are PiS members, followed by unaffiliated local politicians. In the last year, 869 PiS councillors out of 1,481—or almost 60 per cent—supported ‘anti-LGBT’ or ‘pro-family’ resolutions.” Claudia Ciobanu, “A Third of Poland Declared ‘LGBT-Free Zone,’” Reporting Democracy, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, February 25, 2020, balkaninsight.com/2020/02/25/a-third-of-poland-declared-lgbt-free-zone/.

132      “Children should not be subjected to practices . . .”  Jarosław Kaczynski quoted in “Polish LGBTQ Crowds March to Demand Equal Rights as Election Looms,” www.reuters.com/world/europe/polish-lgbtq-march-seeks-show-strength-election-looms-2023-06-17/.

132      rose among queer people across age groups Chad Meyerhoefer et al., “Implications of the Decline in LGBT Rights for Population Mental Health: Evidence from Polish ‘LGBT-Free Zones,’” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 31702 (September 2023), www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31702/w31702.pdf, 15.

132      even among teens as young as thirteen  Meyerhoefer et al., “Implications of the Decline in LGBT Rights for Population Mental Health,” 10, 29, www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31702/w31702.pdf.

132      a 61 percent increase in suicide . . . especially men  Meyerhoefer et al., “Implications of the Decline in LGBT Rights for Population Mental Health,” 3, 15, www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31702/w31702.pdf.