Racism has been a recurring part of the history of Europe. Belarus

Belgium Racism in Belgium existed since its independence declaration during the colonial era. A 2011 study shows that racism against sub-saharan people is strongly influenced by its colonial history.

Today racism is present in all 3 main regions of Belgium, specially in Flanders, and widespread in the society: in the police, in schools, in sport activities, on the streets, in public institutions, on social media.

In 2002, a racist crime shocked Belgium, when a man broke into his neighbour's, home of a Moroccan family, killed 2 adults, injured 2 kids and set fire to their apartment. The killer was a notorious activist of the extreme right party Vlaams Blok (today's Vlaams Belang), and apparently decided to act a day after Jean-Marie Le Pen lost the French presidency dispute.

In 2020, the young Adil was killed by the police in Brussels while he was riding a scooter and trying to run away from a police check, when a disguised police car crashed into him. The case is still under investigation, but 3/4 of the police department reported racial comments coming from the policeman that killed Adil, not only related to the case, but also against colleagues under his supervision.

In 2021, a documentary revealed the racism of Flemish football fans. Romelu Lukaku declared having faced racial insults as young as 11 years-old in his first club in Flanders, according to him the insults came from the parents of adverse players, but only when he played against other Flemish teams. The extreme right in the Flemish region is rallying football fans together in racist acts, even across fans from historically adverse teams.

Bulgaria Romani people remain one of the most discriminated-against groups in Bulgaria. In 2023, Arso Ganev went to a public pool in Kyustendil, Bulgaria with his family. They were rejected due to being Roma. This is not the only case where Romani people are discriminated against in public pools in Bulgaria. On 9 October 1992, the Bulgarian president signed the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, signaling a new commitment to uphold minority rights.

In 2011, the parliamentary party Ataka, identifying itself as nationalist, attacked the mosque in the center of Sofia during the Friday prayer. In 2013 one of the leaders of another nationalist party, VMRO, Angel Djambasky was put under investigation for calling the people to arm themselves against the immigrants.

At least 6 racist crimes are perpetrated between 3 and 13 November of every year. 112 intellectuals signed a petition to the attorney general not to register the party Ataka, which was rejected by the attorney general.ОТКРИТ СИГНАЛ (in Bulgarian) Retrieved 6 February 2023

In October 2019, Bulgarian supporters shouted racist abuse towards Black English footballers during a match.

In June 2023, Bulgaria's Commission for Protection Against Discrimination (CPD) fined VMRO - Bulgarian National Movement (VMRO-BND) because of the “Gypsy Issue” section on their website. They were also prohibited from posting content that promotes hatred against ethnic minorities.

Cyprus The National Popular Front, or National People's Front (Greek: Εθνικό Λαϊκό Μέτωπο (ΕΛΑΜ), Ethniko Laiko Metopo ELAM (Cyprus)), is a far-right movement (and later, political party) founded in 2008 in the Republic of Cyprus. The party has been the subject of controversy in the Cypriot media and broader political scene. It has been repeatedly accused of promoting racism and being involved in acts of violence. Guest workers have reportedly often been a target of racial abuse from employers, landlords and government employees.

Denmark

A poll from YouGov in 2019 showed that 72% rated their view on Romas as "totally negative", remarkably higher than the other polled Northern European countries, Muslims were also viewed more negatively, with 45% having a negative view. This was also tied first with Finland. The negative perceptions of Black people and Jews, were however lower than the average of the polled countries, with 11% and 8% respectively. In 2014 it was reported that Adoptees with foreign background are often racially abused.

Young non-ethnic Danes have complained that some police officers have acted in a racist manner.Politi: De unge klager over racistiske betjente, by Andreas Lindquist, Politiken, 18 February 2008

The term hyggeracisme (hygge + racism) is used by some to describe racist phrases/jokes, where the person saying the phrase may perceive it as being unproblematic and funny.

Estonia In the mid-2010s, NATO soldiers from the U.S. stationed in Estonia as part of Enhanced Forward Presence were subject to racist attacks by local civilians, resulting in condemnations from the Estonian Air Force's commander, Jaak Tarien, and the U.S. embassy's chargé d'affaires. Some Estonians, particularly from the Conservative People's Party, voiced their displeasure at the condemnations.

The Conservative People's Party of Estonia has been described by critics as xenophobic and racist.

Finland

Reports say that racial hate crime is a recent phenomenon, and that they are on the rise.Responding to racism in Finland . European Network Against Racism The numbers of reported hate crimes in 2003 and 2004 were 522 and 558, respectively. In 2009, they had increased to over 1,000 (including non-racist hate crimes). Racial hate crimes have fluctuated from 858 (2009) to 641 (2012) and the typical suspect have been a Finnish-born young man. However, over 60% of the targets were reported to have been Finland-born, although those with foreign-born parents were counted as well. The most targeted immigrants in 2004 were reported to be of Somali, Kurdish, Russian, Iraqi and Iranian origin. One-third of the hate crimes were reportedly aimed at the Kale, and only one in six were members of the native population.

In European Social Surveys since 2002, Finns have proved to be least racist just after Swedes. Earlier Finnish scientific data reveals that attitudes had been improving continuously for a long time.Yhteiskuntatieteellinen tietoarkisto | www.fsd.uta.fi | 2009. Professor of Social Policy and responsible of Finnish ESS, Heikki Ervasti, denies a common thought of increased negative attitudes against immigrants.

A poll made in late 2011 revealed that the majority of the Finns viewed Finland as a racist country. Two thirds considered the country to be fairly racist, 12% recognised a moderate amount of racism, and 2% admitted to be very racist; 35% agreed partly or wholly to the statement "Islam is a threat to Western values and democracy", and 29% agreed more or less to that "people belonging to certain races simply are not suited to live in a modern society". One in five thought "it needs to be recognised as a fact that some nations are more intelligent than others", and 11% agreed partly or completely to "people whose appearance and culture differ much from those of the Finns are unpredictable and frightening".

France

In 1998, the Council of Europe's European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) made a report stating concern about racist activities in France and accused the French authorities of not doing enough to combat this. The report and other groups have expressed concern about organizations such as Front National (France). In a recent Pew Survey, 47% of the French deem immigration from Central and Eastern Europe (mainly from Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Romania, including Slavic and Romani people) to be a very bad thing. Likewise, the majority of French respondents revealed negative views on the immigration of Muslims from Africa and the Middle East. A small minority showed signs of anti-Semitism. Roughly 11% had an unfavorable view of Jews (16 March 2004) and 8% felt that US policy was most influenced by the Jews.

According to a report published by the Interior Ministry's Statistics Service (SSMSI), in 2023 hate crimes and offenses motivated by racism, xenophobia, and religion rose by 32% over the previous year 2022. The number of racist offenses increased sharply: 1,636 in 2022 to 3,139 in 2023.

Germany

The period after Germany lost World War I led to an increased use of anti-Semitism and other forms of racism in political discourse, for example among the right-wing Freikorps, emotions that finally culminated in the ascent to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in 1933. The Nazi racial policy and the Nuremberg Race Laws against Jews and other non-Aryans represented the most explicit racist policies in Europe in the twentieth century. These laws deprived all Jews including even half-Jews and quarter-Jews as well as other non-Aryans from German citizenship. Jews' official title became "subject of the state". The Nuremberg Race Laws forbade racially mixed sexual relations and marriage between Aryans and at first Jews but was later extended to "Gypsies, Negroes or their bastard offspring". Such interracial relations became a criminal and punishable offence under the race laws known as "racial pollution" Rassenschande. Racism in Nazi Germany was also influenced by Martin Luther's antisemitism.

According to the 2023 report of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, anti-Black racism is rising in European countries, especially Germany. The survey, conducted among black immigrants in 13 EU countries, revealed that approximately a third of participants felt discriminated racially in the previous year, 10% more than the survey conducted six years ago. In Germany, 64% of the participants reported experiencing racial discrimination, nearly twice of the previous survey.

Greece Golden Dawn emerged as a fringe movement when it was founded in the early 1980s and since then, it has evolved into a far-right group within Greece. Members of Golden Dawn have been accused of carrying out acts of violence as well as hate crimes against immigrants, political opponents, homosexuals and ethnic minorities. In late 2020, the party's leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, and six other prominent members and former MPs, were charged with running a criminal organization and guilty verdicts on charges of murder, attempted murder, and violent attacks on immigrants and left-wing political opponents were delivered and they were sent to prison.

Greece had one of the highest numbers of racist incidents in 2015. According to the network of non-governmental organizations Racist Violence Recording Network (RVRN)’s 2015 annual report, the number of racist violence was 273 in 2015. Same organization reported highest number of racist violence since 2015, with a number of 158 attacks, 89 targeting refugees and migrants in 2023.

The Athens-based Racist Violence Recording Network has documented attacks by organised groups across the country against those perceived to be migrants or Muslims.

Hungary An EU report found that legal policies that should protect people from racism and xenophobia were "not implemented effectively", and it also found that Hungarian public officials denied the fact that racism and discrimination were a problem in their country, despite evidence to the contrary. It noted that such factors contributed to the increase in extremist ideologies in Hungarian politics and media. The Council of Europe has also criticized Hungary in a new report, condemning xenophobia and violence against migrants and minorities.

2013 FRA online survey shows a middle to high level of anti-Semitism in Hungary, compared to other European countries. The banned Hungarian Guard and some Jobbik politicians are sometimes described as xenophobic and racist.