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The RW populist parties are shaking a fist at the pluralism, turbulence and heterogeneity of
contemporary life. Precisely what some people most relish about Europe’s global cities, they most dislike.
The rise of immigration as a Pan-European issue more closely resembles a culture war than an economic controversy. The populist parties, mostly of the right, are shaking a fist at the pluralism, turbulence and heterogeneity of contemporary life. Precisely what some people most relish about Europe’s global cities, they most dislike. This is visceral politics: the politics of the “other,” fearing and loathing of that which is different. If the 20th century has one certain lesson, it is that such emotions should never be ignored or lazily appeased.
This right wing uprising — anti-European Union, anti-immigrant, anti-elites — is chemically powered by a tripartite compound. First, the founding fathers of what has become the European Union (principally, Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman) dreamed of a Continent that had twice been scorched by world war at last embracing peace, but gave little thought to the cultivation of a European demos, a popular emotional identity with the new apparatus.
Second, this is more than a question of sentimental attachment. The chasm between citizen and Union never seemed wider than during the euro-zone crisis of 2010 and its aftermath. Youth unemployment reached 25 percent and higher in some regions.
Third, Europeans are confronting the consequences of unprecedented population mobility and the loss of control over their national borders implicit in European Union membership. There may be no European demos, but there is certainly a rules-based European citizenship, which means that a young person from Bucharest, Sofia or Zagreb can go to London, Paris or Rome in search of work and a new life. The restrictions governing settlement in each destination differ, but the core liberty is clear.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/31/opinion/dancona-europes-dangerous-new-fault-line.html
This right wing uprising — anti-European Union, anti-immigrant, anti-elites — is chemically powered by a tripartite compound. First, the founding fathers of what has become the European Union (principally, Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman) dreamed of a Continent that had twice been scorched by world war at last embracing peace, but gave little thought to the cultivation of a European demos, a popular emotional identity with the new apparatus.
Second, this is more than a question of sentimental attachment. The chasm between citizen and Union never seemed wider than during the euro-zone crisis of 2010 and its aftermath. Youth unemployment reached 25 percent and higher in some regions.
Third, Europeans are confronting the consequences of unprecedented population mobility and the loss of control over their national borders implicit in European Union membership. There may be no European demos, but there is certainly a rules-based European citizenship, which means that a young person from Bucharest, Sofia or Zagreb can go to London, Paris or Rome in search of work and a new life. The restrictions governing settlement in each destination differ, but the core liberty is clear.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/31/opinion/dancona-europes-dangerous-new-fault-line.html
"This is visceral politics: the politics of the “other,” fearing and loathing of that which is different." - Exactly the type of politics practiced by the far-right in the US. Some things never change.
