Anti-immigration parties in France, England and Denmark make sweeping gains in European parliament election.Bad economic times often favor the rise of the rightist nationalism likely owing to resentment that is most easily and costlessly focused on foreigners.
Al Jazzera
Far-right parties sweep EU polls
See also Business Insider, The EU Is Safe For Now, But Its Future Looks Terrible by Robert Wile on the youth trend to fringe parties.
It only favors far right nationalism when the left fails. Bad economic times in the US in the 20's and 30's gave us Roosevelt, the New Deal, Social Security, bank reform, the creation of a prosperous middle class.
ReplyDeleteThese elections signal the utter failure of the center left in Europe. And it will come here too if the establishment left in the US doesn't get its act together.
Rising rightist nationalism due to the failures of the "internationalism" of neoliberal globalization. Not a good recipe for the future.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, nationalistic parties in power in Japan, and most recently, India. Post-USSR Russia is now chiefly nationalistic, too, a wave that Putin is riding.
ReplyDeleteWhere “nationalism” consists simply of a desire to preserve your own country’s culture, identity, way of life, etc and stop it being Islamised, for example, I support nationalism. And that’s largely what France’s Front National is all about.
ReplyDeleteIn contrast, if “nationalism” means invading or interfering in other countries, or not cooperating with other countries, then I object. But that’s not what France’s Front National are on about, nor UKIP in Britain.
have you switched from the BNP to UKIP, Ralph?
ReplyDelete"stop it being Islamised"
ReplyDeletewhat do you mean by that exactly?
ReplyDeleteSharia courts in UK
The Sharia patrols around neighborhoods are roughing up gals that happen through the neighborhood wearing skirts or drinking alcohol.
Recently, the Law Society published inflammatory guidance for solicitors on how to use Sharia law succession rules to draft wills excluding women from inheritance under existing law in the UK
Need for Khalifah put on rallies and posted this video of radicals demanding sharia law.
I think those links give a flavor of the clash of culture. The left will dismiss the objections as being racists and the right will be racist but when all the rhetoric is settled there are real cultural differences and people that want to see very different sets of laws imposed.
"Nationalism" is pretty generic word that does a lot of work and it's meaning extend across a range from patriotism to xenophobia, jingoism, racism, and exceptionalism. It's been used to justify isolationism and also territorial expansion, imperialism, and colonialism.
ReplyDeleteEach party has to be looked at separately, and some are more fringe that others. As far as I can tell, the European nationalist parties have been small fringe groups that attracted some dubious characters. Now those parties are drawing from the disaffected center, which is pretty much how German and Italian fascism got going.
The EU was supposedly funded to counter the nationalistic trend in Europe that has led to pretty constant warfare historically. This can only be seen as a countertrend, Some reaction could be expected in any event. We'll have to see where t his goes, but if the economic situation doesn't improve or gets worse, then it could become the dominant tend.
This is the issue with liberal democracy and political pluralism in a world that still extremely tribal. It will take many generations to work through this on the way to a "global village." I would estimate five generations at a minimum, which would be a hundred years or so. That would be a quick transition. America has been working on for several hundred years and there is still a long way to go. In the meanwhile, expect conflict over it.
ReplyDelete