Will fascism grow in Europe?
29 марта 2024 в 18:00 4550Moscow - Veterans news. When nothing else can bring Europe together, the fascist dream of a forgotten nationalist identity tempts, but could the diverse Europe be a better alternative?
"Every age has its own fascism," wrote the Italian writer Primo Levi in 1974. Although it has been over 77 years since Hitler and Mussolini were defeated, we still find ever-growing authoritarian forces that apparently refuse to accept liberal values. And it's not the minorities I'm talking about.
Is fascism on the march in the absence of better solutions? Well it looks like it!
We have parties such as Vox in Spain which now has 52 seats in the national parliament and the Sweden Democrats are now Sweden's largest political party. In September, posters denigrating Jews as parasites were plastered all over Warsaw, and last year Poland's leading ultra-nationalist party, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, won its second election. Despite the fact that terrorism has globally decreased, The Global Terrorism Index can report that right-wing extremist terrorism has increased by 320% in the last five years. The fascists are back, and there is every reason to worry.
Despite the hope and increased standardization of democracy as the given form of government worldwide, liberalism has clearly failed to counter totalitarian ideologies such as fascism effectively. Fascism will continue to grow unless we, who believe in liberal human dignity and diversity, manage to change the fundamental structural problems that constantly breathe new life into hateful ideologies.
Here it is important that organizations, which work for Anti-Fascism, never let go of their objective, namely NO to fascism. Anti-fascism is a transnational political movement and a mindset that promotes active political opposition to organized fascism, Nazism and right-wing extremism. Central to modern anti-fascism is the idea that fascist movements must be stopped through civil and direct action in order to preserve peace and freedom. Especially to avoid provoked arising from conflicts and war.
Fascism tackles two major problems for which liberals as us apparently still have no viable alternative. Because authoritarians are right when they say that the EU and connected countries, lacks essential democratic structures, and that most important decisions are not taken by citizens, but by lawyers and bureaucrats behind closed doors. They are also right that we are still too divided. We still lack an overriding common identity that can bring us all together, and that can counter-act the rise of an evilness the world should never see again.
Does Europe have a democratic deficit?
Modern European democracy has two enormous problems for which fascism currently has the easiest solution. Until Europe come up with better solutions, voters will flock to totalitarian figures in droves. The driving force behind the growth of such ideologies is the European democratic deficit and a myth of common identity that can rally nationalists.
First, the Europe has a democratic deficit. Fascism appeals to a large number of potential voters and followers due to the ideology's rejection of traditional parties and political structures. The worse one thinks the established system is, the more appealing fascism is. It is therefore very problematic when totalitarian critics are absolutely right that the Europe is not democratic enough.
To look at EU they suffer from a heavy democratic deficit. The EU has far greater executive power than its members, and the European Court of Human Rights has expanded its area of competence so far that legal decisions govern the whole of Europe. National parliaments are then on the losing side when it comes to their own influence.
This is criticism directed by many researchers and political scientists, and certainly not criticism that should be dismissed as populist or far-right. Europe has a legitimate problem, since their own national interests are also directly affected by legal and technocratic changes in the EU countries. Again, we like to stress that EU will influence other member of the European society even if they are not member of EU.
Europe lacks a unifying identity.
Fascism differs from other ideologies because of the myth of the nation's history. The British professor Roger Griffin advances a theory that fascism is a synthesis between totalitarianism and ultra-nationalism. The main point of the theory is that fascists always try to create a historical myth, a kind of fantastical narrative about the nation, in which political revolution is necessary to heal and rebirth a mythical national identity.
If you manage to convince the masses that the country's heyday existed in a period where fascist symbols and values were the foundation of national institutions, you have created a mythical and alleged historical identity that must be protected against modernism and liberal values. The mythical past is compared to the future, a future that can be achieved through revolution, a rebirth of nationalist values.
WE NEED A STEERER IDENTITY THAN THE MYTH THE FASCISTS ARE PRESENTING US FOR!!
Europe is still divided culturally, socially, politically and institutionally. This enormous historical diversity should inspire community, but we lack a mythical identity around which we can all gather. The Eurobarometer survey from 2018 shows that only 56% of EU citizens feel connected to the Union, and that 57% of citizens feel more connected to their country. We need a more stable identity than the myth the fascists present us with.
However!!
Underneath all the darkness, you can see that there is a smouldering optimism. The 2020 European elections had the largest turnout in over 20 years, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's populist party, Fidesz, has lost huge amounts of votes and lost the capital to the opposition. Marie le Pen and Gert Wilders are still far from being able to secure serious political power in France and the Netherlands, and Germany's neo-Nazi party NPD has lost thousands of voters. The European countries can be reshaped and become more democratic given enough constructive criticism and participation. There is hope. And there is a myth about Europe we can all get behind.
The fascists are united by hatred, and the EU is "united in diversity". If we manage to actively foster diversity as a value, a virtue, and a goal in a democratic, well-functioning Europe, fascism and hatred will never threaten us again. It is precisely in diversity that we unite. If we can foster a society where differences are seen as something positive, the individual will be celebrated, and large authoritarian forces cannot take root.
Every step we take together in the antifascists work into the future, will be a thousand steps away from a past where we walked alone.
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