On Rising Nationalisms: The European Case
On Rising Nationalisms: The European Case
Juan Pablo Escobar Lopera (Semillero GRIS – Universidad EAFIT, Medellín).
Just some days ago, we witnessed how the MP’s in Britain voted against a no-deal Brexit, putting in some trouble Theresa May’s government. The UK has faced many hardships before the vote held in 2016 to leave or remain in the EU. We can still see how they have not abandoned the idea of leaving. This is curious considering how this situation has given the UK headaches such as industries threatening with leaving the country, like Nissan, who just announced the end of the production of two luxury vehicles in the UK, prompting the moving of more car production out of the UK (Riley, 2019). Joining Nissan, we can also find Toyota, Honda and even powerhouses like Jaguar-Land Rover, which have announced going out of the business by closing factories, transfer of production and cuts in preparation for Brexit. This is just the view of the automotive industry, but this can be seen across different productive areas in the UK, and we haven’t even talked about the geopolitical problems that the UK faces with Brexit, like the situation in the Irish border, which remains a complex topic that needs to be solved in preparation for Brexit.
The EU despite all the difficulties that have put on some of its members, has given Europe the tools to become the main player in the global scale, situations in which members alone could not do so. Despite this and the troubles that has occasioned Brexit for the UK, we still see the way many countries across Europe still remain euro-skeptic over the years. So, one should ask the question, why is this phenomenon happening? The answer may lay in the hands of another growing phenomenon in Europe and other parts of the world, and this is the rising far-right and nationalist parties. Such movements can be described as the ones who advocate for a strong nationalist sentiment, patriotism and pride for their countries, which goes in hand with the “protection” of the culture and traditional values. This can go against ideas such as multiculturalism and diversity, progressive principles that directly or indirectly has occasioned the Unification Project of Europe.
This growing nationalist sentiment can be seen in the past Parliament elections and polls in Europe, where almost in every country this parties gained force and recognition. In Germany, the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfG) gained 12.6% of the vote for the Bundestag (BBC, 2018). From this, we can see the strengthening and the growing acceptance these parties are gaining in the continent, prompting questions such as why are these parties gaining such support or what does this mean for the future of Europe? The first thing that we can say is that as of right now, we all are connected given the globalist and interconnected dynamics of the world in the XXI century. So, if a phenomenon occurs is not isolated of what occurs in other parts of the world (Van Hauweart, 2018). Also, we could say that if there’s a growing nationalist sentiment in some country of Europe, the natural thing is that this also occurs in other countries of the continent. In this way, the master frame defined as “a set of consciously structured, yet flexible principles by which a societal entity–in this case FRP–expresses its perception of the societal sphere” (Van Hauwaert, 2018, p. 134), can be spread across the continent and even the world.
Now we pose the question, how did these movement arise in the first place? One of the factors that let this happened was the exploitation of moments of crisis by the FRP. For a better understanding of this, it is necessary to appeal to the ontological security approach, which “provides leverage for understanding how fears and anxieties at group, state and EU level have psycho-socio-political effects that shape political movements, policy debates and European security” (Kinvall, Manners & Mitzen, 2018, p. 250). This can be applied to the economic crisis of 2008 and 2011, where politicians and the media put the focus of attention initially on socioeconomic aspects and personal fears such as job offer. However, in the mindset of the population, the migration crisis was a core problem that the establishment was putting aside, which provided an opportunity for the FRP to capitalize on this, gaining support from the people that were worried for this subject.
Now, another factor that was helpful for the victories of the FRP, was the ideological and discursive parts. These parties put special emphasis in ideology. However, inside some movements there was not a consensus regarding what conforms such ideologies. That’s why it’s important to distinguish between FRP that are radical and the ones that are extremist, being the difference: “Radicalism calls for “root and branch” reform of the political and economic system, but does not explicitly seek the elimination of all forms of democracy. In contrast, extremism is directly opposed to democracy” (Golder, 2016, p. 2). Because of this, it’s appropriate to say that most FRP in Europe are radical, looking for a profound reform in their countries’ system by getting into account factors such as identity and core values. Now, this is an important part, because these parties introduced this radical idea into mainstream society by using speeches that are appealing and keeping in mind those moments of crisis already mentioned. One of the concepts that they made attractive for citizens is the one of nativism, which is a combination of “nationalism with xenophobia in that it calls for states to comprise only members of the native group and considers non-native elements to be fundamentally threatening to the monoculture nation-state” (Golder, 2018, p. 4). The members of society that belong to these cultural groups that are part of the nationality will be comfortable with this idea. Nevertheless, the ones who disagree, will have to either assimilate the culture or leave.
This is a dangerous situation for different groups that do not belong to this idea of the monoculture nation-state, given that it puts in jeopardy such already vulnerable groups like migrants and others, like the LGBTQ+ community or different religious groups that are not a majority. We need to ask ourselves what would happen to these communities in a near future in which such speeches that exclude them are becoming the norm, and more so, the role of Europe in a global scale in which, the project of unification, that at this moment has kept Europe in peace, may eventually disappear.
References
BBC World. (2018). Europe and nationalism: A country-by-country guide. Retrieved from: https://bbc.in/2M8sll7
Riley, C. (2019). Nissan is moving more car production out of the UK. CNN Business. Retrieved from: https://cnn.it/2Hk2PKj
Golder, Matt. (2016). Far right parties in Europe. Pennsylvania, United States: Pennsylvania State University.
Kinvall, C; Manners I & Mitzen, J. (2018). Introduction to 2018 special issue of European Security: Ontological (in)security in the European Union. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2018.1497977
Van Hauwaert, S. (2018). On far-right parties, master frames and trans-national diffusion: understanding far right party development in Western Europe. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41295-017-0112-z.
Photo by Jaime Estevez on Unsplash
