Europe is frightened

Europe is frightened

In an article of the Spanish edition of the magazine Foreign Policy, the journalist Ana Carbajosa, analyses an increasingly widespread feeling throughout Europe: fear. Globalisation, terrorism, immigration, social insecurity, climate change and the current economic crisis are making Europeans more and more fearful: “Europeans are frightened” and distrustful of a little promising future. The economic crisis has revived old fears and thousands of Europeans have demonstrated against governments and politicians claiming new economic, and security measures. This goes hand in hand with the increasingly wide support to far-right, anti-EU and populist parties in the European elections (see article below) and the upsurge in racism all over Europe (very recently more than a hundred Romanian immigrants in Northern Ireland were forced out of their homes after xenophobic attacks).

Ana Carbajosa makes reference to the book, Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them, where the author, Philippe Legrain, explains that the angst during an economic crisis has been historically expressed through the refusal of the “outsiders”. The current economic crisis seems to have the same effect, and has propelled another fear that should be mentioned: the fear to lose one’s identity and the need to belong to a particular social group with well-defined frontiers. This, according to the author, has reinforced old fears of a European super-state, without defined borders and that have helped nationalism to spread. It is in this context, she argues, politicians should give hope to a disorientated society. However, the European construction is at its lowest point and there is no Barack Obama in Europe to increase the trust in political institutions.

The author concludes that the gravity of the economic crisis, together with scarce and late political reactions and the coverage of the media, will culminate in a state of collective fear that will make citizens turn to nationalist and conservative politics. This might put at risk the open and tolerant Europe that has nourished the dream of a peaceful and prosperous Europe. However, the author adds an optimistic note by arguing that this might also be the chance for the left to reinforce its position and that this might also lead to the strengthening of the civil society against a rather disappointing political class.

Full article: http://www.fp-es.org/europa-tiene-miedo

The worrying European elections

In this article of The Economist (13/06/2009), there is a review of the results of the European elections with a very pessimistic note: “the dream of a European demos nourishing a pan-European democracy based on Europe-wide parties is more distant than ever”. The European dream seems now far away and, after the elections, three main common ideas in the 27 European member states –not reassuring for the EU- are listed as follows:

.- Indifference by Europeans: reflected by the lowest EU-wide turnout since 1979, far below levels in national elections (even when European elections campaigns have been dominated by local and national concerns).
.- The defeat of the Left, not only where it is in the government, but also where it is in opposition or in coalition with the mainstream Right. The authors argue that the left-appeal is waning, maybe due to their incoherence and divisions in their views over globalisation and their inability to offer an alternative to the crisis of capitalism.
.- The worrying antis: the increasingly wide support to far-right, anti-EU and populist parties whose ideas are intrinsically “antiethical to all that the EU stands for”. These extremist parties, with their views on protectionism and nationalism, and with their anti-Islamic, racist and homophobic rhetoric, and so on and so forth, are a danger for both the EU (and all its achievement, i.e. the single market and enlargement) and basic civil liberties. The diversity of cultures in an open and tolerant Europe seems to be under threat from populists and nationalists.

The article concludes by arguing that with the rise of these populist and anti-EU parties, those Europeans who did not vote (because they did not care) may come to regret it. If we are to preserve the once valued Europe’s openness where civil liberties and human rights are respected, national and European politics should be reshaped and populist and nationalist parties´ ideas refuted.

Full article: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13829453