Last weekend's slaying of a young black by skinheads rampaging through the streets of racially tolerant Lisbon is a worrying sign of the spread of organized racism across Europe.
European cities, even ones where racial harmony has been the rule for years, are struggling to deal with racist extremism that feeds on the continent's lingering economic troubles and other social tensions.France, Britain, Belgium, Austria and Germany have all experienced racially motivated violence by organized groups. Racist attacks by individuals also have grown in those and other nations in Europe, and authorities are concerned about the threat of more incidents in the hot summer months ahead.
Alcindo Monteiro, a 27-year-old black Portuguese citizen of Cape Verdean origin, was bludgeoned to death June 11 by a group of 50 skinheads who raced through Lisbon's busy nightlife district, lashing out at any blacks in their path. A dozen people were injured.
President Mario Soares expressed "repugnance at this aggressive, racist assault.
But despite such traditions, xenophobia is rising in Portugal. As in the rest of Europe, it is fueled by cutbacks in social welfare and a recession that has brought rising unemployment, deprivation and crime.
A recent survey by the National Defense Institute found that nearly half of Portuguese think there are "too many" blacks and Asians in Portugal. About four of every 10 people polled blamed foreigners for growing unemployment and increasing crime and juvenile delinquency.
"If this is happening here, where there is a tradition of racial tolerance, it's a bad sign for Europe," said Maria Carrilho, a sociologist who organized the survey.
In a sign of the worsening tensions in Portugal, black youths retaliated for the killing of Monteiro by beating two groups of whites after his funeral Thursday, an anti-racism group reported.
"World War II ended 50 years ago," said Jose Barros Moura, a Portuguese deputy in the European Parliament. "Who would have thought then that today we would have ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and blacks, Gypsies and Muslims being persecuted in European cities?"
Part of the problem is that memories of the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust are fading. They are being replaced by young people's anxieties about the continent's future.