The European nations are abandoning liberalism and using nationalism to prevent immigration from Asia and Africa
There is no doubt that Europe is leaning Right. National elections held in the Continent are bringing forth governments one by one, which can be called right-wing, but not fascist. The Netherlands has all but elected Geert Wilders, an unapologetic opponent of Islam. Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s rightwing and nationalist Prime Minister, is going strong; She has thrown out China’s BRI project and refuses to toe the European Union’s line on immigration. Emmanuel Macron of France, who began as a centrist is turning right, much to the consternation of that country’s socialists and leftists, while indications are that the far-right, anti-immigrant and anti-Islam Marine Le Pen might win France’s next elections. President Emmanuel Macron has often spoken of the need to build a “Europe that protects''.
In a landmark 2017 Sorbonne speech, he had also called for “a sovereign, united and democratic Europe”. Finland has a strong right-wing prime minister, Petteri Orpo, who is no friend of unrestricted immigration. Hungary under Viktor Orban has already called the European Union a dysfunctional arrangement and no longer obeys its diktats. Now Greece is throwing up rightwing politicians, who have opened their doors to Indian investments, but more importantly, Greece has stated that it will never be friends with India’s enemies. Much to everyone’s horror, the Alternative Fur Deutschland (AFD), a nationalist and right-wing German party is gaining ground in that country and might soon rule Deutschland. The AFD is reportedly a hard-right party opposed to the liberal and green environmentalist agendas of Germany’s conventional political parties, and also their liberal stance on immigrants coming into Germany. The days of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ‘welkuming’ policies towards Turkish and Middle Eastern migrants are now more or less over.
Whether the new rulers admit and say it or not, they have been elected in response to a dread of Islam. The fascists had captured power between the two World Wars, which itself had been a fearful response to the threat of communism.
In the context of World War II, Fascism/Nazism or class collaboration were conceptually appropriate to the growth of ideologies that propagated and promoted class conflict. Logically, the antidote to the fear of Islam should have been more and more influence of Christianity. Unfortunately, however, the grip of Christianity over the minds and hearts of Europeans, with the march of modernity and the progress of advanced learning and education, has dissipated. Education encourages thinking, and a thinking individual does not accept any assertion without research or survey, preferably of an empirical nature.
Over and above this difficulty, three religions have competed with the same claim. To start with, Judaism, then Christianity and thereafter Islam have the same contention and beliefs. To worship without being allowed to pursue spirituality or seeking an opportunity to see or feel the divine is a very limiting and constraining experience. This can seem harsh to the thinking person.
Experts in Europe say that currently, only about 25 per cent of people in West Europe declare themselves as Christians, and only a small minority of even these people are church-goers. In other words, Christianity is in no position to help to keep Muslims out of the Continent.
Between the two world wars, waging class conflict was seen as something normal until it was countered with class collaboration. In its heyday, Christianity could have helped combat Islam. Today, the Europeans are abandoning their liberation and using nationalism to prevent further immigration from Asia and Africa. In a way, this is an about-turn, because, after WWII, nationalism had become unwelcome. Books were written to show that fascism was nothing but an intensification of nationalism and therefore, was unwelcome any longer. The coming together of Europe under the banner of the European Union (EU) was a demonstration of the post-WWII European opposition to nationalism.
The European far Right has been often accused by its Leftist and liberal critics of representing the worst things in European ideological traditions. These are; namely, exclusive “nationalist essentialism”, dogmatism that runs counter to the values that were bequeathed by the Enlightenment and political authoritarianism, which the Right is accused of re-energizing. But the European Right today conveys a simple but powerful message today, based on three core ideas: rediscovery of the nation and national identities; warning of the dangers of unrestrained immigration, particularly from Islamic countries, which is derided as xenophobia; and anti-politician, anti-establishment populism. In this regard, the far Right offers its followers an exclusive identity. The European Right has identified conventional politicians, i.e., the establishment as the culprits and advocates simple and now increasingly unavoidable solutions like throwing out unwanted foreigners and overthrowing the traditional political class.
Right or wrong, good or bad, this seems to be catching on in today’s Europe. The Soviet Union was a superpower inhabiting a part of Europe’s geography, to which also the European Union was an answer. An ideologically non-descript Russia, with its fifteen republics having seceded is no longer seen as an almighty threat. As a result, quite a few European experts may begin to consult crystal gazers to check up on the future of the European Union.
(The writer is a well-known columnist, an author and a former member of the Rajya Sabha. The views expressed are personal)
