by Amir Taheri • June 16, 2024 at 4:00 am
The federal tendency runs counter to the European political tradition based on national sovereignty. In fact, Western Europe, the heartland of the EU, is the birthplace of the very concept of the nation-state, built on the ruins of various empires, a model subsequently adopted by almost all other countries.
In the first mass rally against the success of the National Rally in the election, thousands of "progressive" militants gathered in the Place de la République to "defend French values". However, there was not a single French flag in sight. Instead, we had a forest of Palestinian flags with slogans against the EU leadership, US President Joe Biden, and, of course, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Thus the European Union is under attack from both the radical right and the ultra-left, while the center-left is shrinking and the center-right flirting with radical right groups.
European democracies face the danger that Hobbes warned against two centuries ago: the Leviathan, i.e. the state, being put to death with a thousand cuts. Political fragmentation, encouraged by the proportional representation system, creates scores of small but ultra-active groups wedded to niche ideas, not to say obsessions.
The latest EU election showed at least one thing: The EU is becoming increasingly unpopular. Under growing pressure from the fringes both of right and left, it is doubling down on some of the policies that occasioned its unpopularity.
The results of this month's European Parliament elections have prompted two reactions from political analysts in the old continent.
One reaction could be described as the ostrich option, burying one's head in the sand and praying that the storm will blow over.
The other could be labeled apocalyptic, pointing at the four terrible horsemen riding across the horizon.
The apocalyptic analysts, however, warn of looming mayhem, some even claiming that fascism is coming back to Europe.
This month's election was the latest of a series that have pointed to some of the EU's structural problems without posing them as key issues in a broad debate about the future.
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