The longstanding effort to keep extremist forces out of government in Europe is officially over.
For decades, political parties of all kinds joined forces to keep the hard-right far from the levers of power. Today, this strategy — known in France as a cordon sanitaire(or firewall) — is falling apart, as populist and nationalist parties grow in strength across the Continent.
Six EU countries — Italy, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and the Czech Republic — have hard-right parties in government. In Sweden, the survival of the executive relies on a confidence and supply agreement with the nationalist Sweden Democrats, the second-largest force in parliament. In the Netherlands, the anti-Islamic firebrand Geert Wilders is on the verge of power, having sealed a historic dealto form the most right-wing government in recent Dutch history.
Meanwhile, hard-right parties are dominating the polls across much of Europe. In France, far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is cruising at over 30 percent, far ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls. Across the Rhine, Alternative for Germany, a party under police surveillance for its extremist views, is polling second, head-to-head with the Social Democrats.
Sure, provided that the EU, pays reparations to the countries that it gouges the last 50 years, and provided that former colonial European countries, pay reparations to their former colonies.
What, no?
You can’t colonize Algeria and then complain about Algerians in France. You can’t import gastarbeiter and then complain about Turks in Germany. You can’t genocide the Kongo, Namibia, etc and then complain about Africans. You can’t keep West Africa in a perpetual chokehold with the franc and complain about the Senegalese.
Basically, you simply can not fundamentally alter the rest of the world to serve your interests and then pretend that you don’t have to change yourself.
The funny thing is that the European project as a supra national project is actually perfectly placed to overcome these old wounds by promoting peace and prosperity and encouraging regional integration outside Europe. The basic tenets of Europeanism are wildly successful at promoting peace and prosperity internally. The European experiment seems to have worked and Europe could very well foster similar projects around the world. Instead, they play the role of Vikings…