Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty

The new year has brought the European Union two new members, Bulgaria and Romania. These two countries are the latest intakes in the EU's expansion this decade, and their presence could point to future difficulties in the European project.

For all the techno-jargon about "absorbtion capacity" and whatnot, the fact of the matter is that the two newest members are much poorer, have poorer infrastructure and a more corrupt society than the EU's more venerable members. Romania and Bulgaria are in quite a different world than, say, Ireland, Sweden or the UK, let alone Germany, or even Poland or Slovakia. The promise of EU membership has forced these countries to undergo reforms, but it is far from a finished project.

I mention Bulgaria and Romania because their addition has caused a small stir in the European Parliament (and it obviously takes something unusual to bring notice to the EUP). European Members of Parliament now include representatives from Romania's Greater Romania Party and Bulgaria's National Attack Party. In the world of EU politics, these two parties are considered rather unsavoury, what with their anti-minority, nationalist overtones. Their membership has allowed the formation of a new Pan-European political group: Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty, which will include Le Pen's French National Party, the Freedom Party of Austria (formerly led by Joerg Haider, until he tried to reinvent his political career), the Flemish Nationalist (and anti-immigrant) Vlaams Belang, and various far-right politicians from Italy, including Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of Il Duce and niece of Sophia Loren (for details on her career as a topless model please consult, as always, wikipedia). No word yet on any support coming from the Danish People's Party or any of the late Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn's followers. These parties share a common distrust of the EU, especially regarding attempts to write an EU constitution, support stricter anti-crime measures in their home countries, oppose any EU membership for Turkey, and generally oppose immigration into the EU. Opponents can point to antisemitic histories of some politicians in this group, as well as a few national irredentists (just let the name "Greater Romania" sink in for a minute ... sadly I'm not sure how great it would be).

Quite a few have had some electoral successes in years of late, and a number have participated in or supported national Cabinets in their home countries. To traditional supporters of liberal democracy, such politicians are fascists, pure and simple. I remember a Professor of mine, a former high level State Department employee, remarking to my class that of course the EU must shun Austria and force it to change its government if its government included Joerg Haider! Such people must not be tolerated!

And there in lies the secret of such parties. European politics especially are dominated by something of a political elite...something that might seem quite familiar to the US State Department. All members of this "elite", despite their rhetoric or hairsplittting campaign promises, largely offer the same thing: parliamentary democracy with the same social democratic economics and values. So well and good if people want it, but if they are looking for something different then there is precious little on offer in the mainstream. As a result, these parties appeal to certain needs and fears felt by European voters. Attempts to exclude them only seem to prove that the system is rigged (and it is true that supporters of liberal democracy, whether Republican neoconservatives or UN-minded liberal internationalists, seem to expect a pretty narrow range of acceptable results from democracy despite the world's great variety of cultures, historical experiences and problems - one can see this in calls for Palestinian democracy followed by an international boycott once Palestinians elected a hardline Hamas government). The growing popularity in Europe has led mainstream politicians, such as Sarkozy in France, to address some of their voters' concerns about immigration and crime.

Socialists and communists seem to fit in to democracies and even have a hard left organization in the European parliament - the Party of the European Left, which includes as observers the unreconstructed members of some former Eastern European Communist regimes. It seems that "establishment" opinion seems more tolerable of them than of suspected fascists. In a true democracy, it is better to give everyone a voice ... usually the better to debate them and let them show their own failings (the European far right is an especially fractious lot).

So I say good luck to the Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty Party. I disagree with what you say, but defend your right to say it. Just please do not try to deprive people of fundamental civil and political rights, or try to overthrow your governments and carry out genocide (admittedly, I am not too worried about the latter - professional politicians seem much more harmless than professional militaries, intelligence services and secret police forces that dabble in politics). Ultimately, all politics really is is a means to for the rest of us to humour the politically insane.

As a final warning, I would point to our far right European politican associates that the attempt to organize a Fascist International in the 1930s was a dismal failure (so much so I cannot even find reference to it on Wikipedia). Strident nationalists ultimately do not seem to get along with other strident nationalists ... especially when they are trying to deport each other's populations and control each other's territories. The only common enemies they gather are people favoring democracy... and eventually everyone gets a little tired and wants to throw the old bums out. So the Far Right bums beware of their antics, because they too will meet the same fate.