If we were to talk in this Beacons about what is in the news, it would be about Barroso or Oettinger, Orbán or Erdogan, or Theresa May in her stand-off with judges who have been dragged through the mud by the tabloid press. But that is not going to be the case because, as Commission Vice-President Timmermans said in an excellent interview with French daily Ouest-France, the reason that nationalistic and populist forces speak so much in Europe today about “a glorious past … that has never been and a future that we will never see”, is that, “in politics, nostalgia is always the expression of a fear of the future”.
It is clear that that fear of the future is now everywhere, even in the United States. Is there good cause for any such sentiment? It is tempting to thinks so. The comments – for which he has since apologised – of Commissioner Oettinger, the boundless nationalism of Orban and Erdogan, the extension of influence coveted by some in Ankara, the restoration of an exaggerated sense of sovereignty in England rather than in the United Kingdom all, in their own way, bear witness to the insidious return of the old demons of the 1930s. Add to this the crisis in capitalism and the rise in class war and you have the all the explosive components which, according to British historian Ian Kershaw, led to the Second World War. In an interview with French daily Le Monde (4 November 2016), this specialist in Nazi Germany declared himself worried at the current situation because, while Europe is not in decline – it remains “one of the richest parts of the world” – the fact remains that a deadly poison has, indeed, been injected. “If people feel this way it is because, since the crisis of 2008, austerity has helped only the rich. The losers are looking for whipping boys and they are easy to find”. They are the immigrants and refugees, foreign workers who have come to steal the jobs of local people, politicians who never keep their promises, the elite whose domination of the world is total and complete.
The excesses may be insignificant, except to those who feel let down by life, cast aside, psychologically bruised, to all those young people in Europe who have been robbed of their dreams, destined as they are for unemployment. This is what is happening to ever more European citizens who, then, as Joschka Fischer argues in Project Syndicate, are ever more numerous in giving in to the temptation of seeking their “salvation in nationalism, isolationism, ethnic homogeneity, and nostalgia – the “good old days” when, supposedly, all was well in the world”. In this, former German foreign minister Fischer is adding his voice to that of his old Dutch counterpart, Frans Timmermans, who provides some extenuating circumstances: “Post-crisis, bankers are thriving. But not those who financed the banks. The feeling is that some are benefiting from it while others feel abandoned and worry for their children”. In this comment to Ouest-France, the Commission First Vice-President would seem to have allowed the Dutch Labour Party member that he is to speak freely. More power to him because it is always good to hear the truth, especially from an institution which is given more to technocratic certainties than to genuinely questioning the soundness of the policies it has pushed and continues to push.
The truth for Frans Timmermans is that the European middle classes, key signatories of a social contract on which Europe’s societies have been built, are the main victims of the policies pursued in the member states over recent years. “The European middle class feels today that it is constantly being asked to put its shoulder to the wheel, without getting anything in return”, he says before pointing out that there must be no confusion between putting one’s shoulder to the wheel and altruism. Hence this simple, honest, unembellished conclusion, this welcome admission: “We have a serious problem with the social contract. The lift isn’t going up any more, it’s going down”. Quite a departure from the usual mollifying comments about “the extraordinary benefits of the European Union”, tiresome communications refrains that ultimately have done a disservice to the European cause by wearying even those who had long believed in the European project. These people owe a debt of gratitude to a European leader who has finally dared to break the technocratic code of silence and self-satisfaction that prevails in most European institutions.
Sociologist Felice Dasseto highlighted in 1997 the advent of an “enlightened neo-despotism” which, in the way it operates, is a throw-back to the enlightened despotism of the 18th century. The only difference is the information technology, a combination of communication and advertising, now used to display the importance of the princes who govern us, rather than the “splendour of the court” and the “music of Mozart”. In the same vein, another renowned sociologist, Edgar Morin, has spoken (La Tribune, 6 May 2016) of “an increasingly hegemonic barbarity in contemporary civilisation” which is “calculating and figures”. He explains: “Not only is everything about calculating and figures (profit, GDP, growth, unemployment, opinion polls, etc.), not only are even the human dimensions of society about calculation and figures but now all that is to do with economics is confined to calculation and figures, to the extent that all the ills of society seem to have their roots in economics …”. The French thinker goes on to deliver the conclusion that “this unilateral and reductionist view encourages the tyranny of profit, international speculation, unbridled competition”.
It is that view that has just been panned by the first vice-president of the Commission through a simple question about young people who, not “sharing a common dream”, become radicalised or turn to extremism. “Where have we gone wrong?” That question is now equally valid for the United States of Donald Trump. There, though, we may have to wait at least four years before positive answers can be given. In the European Union they can be delivered tomorrow, if women and men choose another kind of politics – and Europe – so that re-engagement with citizens comes before it is too late. Michel Theys