UN human rights chief warns of rise of far-right in Europe

“We have to be extremely vigilant because history shows us, especially in Europe, that the defamation of others, the vilification of others is a harbinger of things to come,” Volker Turk told reporters at a news conference in Geneva.

“This is the wake-up call we need.”

France will hold a runoff election this weekend as opponents of the far-right, anti-immigrant National Assembly seek to prevent it from taking power after the far-right party won victory in the European Parliament last month, Reuters reported.

Turk is nearly halfway through her four-year term as U.N. human rights chief, whose job it is to denounce rollbacks in freedoms, and has campaigned for years for greater protections for refugees.

An Austrian whose country became a hotbed of anti-Semitism in the 1930s and participated in the Holocaust after it was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, he has previously cited a desire to prevent future atrocities as part of his inspiration.

He declared: “In Europe we have unfortunately seen an increase in hate speech and discriminatory rhetoric and it is important that political leaders make it very clear that there is zero tolerance for hate speech and any attempt to defame others.”