A Series of Disappointing Results
Ever since the irreversible decline of the EU and the failure of it’s German leadership was widely predicted the exact opposite has occured.
This began with the defeat of the Austrian populist party in the run-off presidential election, and continued with the check suffered by Wilers in Holland. Later on in the regional elections in the Saarland, Merkel’s CDU party surprisingly won a decisive victory- the AfD gaining only half the votes expected based on opinion polls. And in Bulgaria, where a pro-Russian party with a lukewarm attitude towards Brussels was expected to win a recent election, the pro-European conservative party emerged victorious.
Meanwhile, opinion polls show that 70% of young Italians are opposed to an “Italexit” and 72% of French youth are opposed to a return to the French Franc and a withdrawal from the eurozone.
All of which proves that the simplistic anti-European approach of the extreme Right is not up to the task of dealing with the current situation; and if this continues, risks aborting a populist upsurge, which it is not capable of channeling towards strategic goals, limiting itself to merely paying lip service to popular discontent in the hope that it’s leaders will win seats in Parliament or retain those they already occupy.
A Misdiagnosis
I will not bother to list all of the Europhobic absurdities of the senescent right wing, at least not those of the right wing in Italy, simply because I do not believe they have any importance in the electoral process.
Mass psychology however does have importance. If Euroscepticism has little appeal and always tends to lose what little appeal it has, it would seem to suggest that those who rely upon it politicaly have badly miscalculated.
This could be because of a healthy reaction to the hostile posture of the Americans, or it could be that, quite contrary to the refrain heard ad nauseum from the reactionary right, a consensus among Europeans has spontaneously begun to take hold in favour of union; whatever the cause, the fact remains that while the public is very critical of the EU and is willing to support radical reforms of it, it is not at all interested in withdrawal or secession. It would seem that in response to ‘America First’ the European public wishes to see a ‘Europe First’, instead of the random, widespread servility to the US currently on offer. Who knows.
A Different Item on the Menu
Whenever intelligence is lacking, human instinct begins to takes over. That being so, Euroscepticism and opposition to the euro are quietly being abandoned, the AfD in Germany being a case in point. G. Grillo in Italy has come to the realization that calling for a withdrawal from the eurozone is not opportune; as both the FPO in Austria and Marine Le Pen have both demonstrated , to do so would be political suicide. Le Pen herself, while she has built her campaign around a so called ‘Frexit’ and a return to the French Franc, has been forced to accept that the less she relies on these positions the better off she is electorally. Notwithstanding, her adversaries continue to make headway attacking her as a menace to France based upon her past as a Eurosceptic.
Nevertheless, Marine will likely win a great victory owing to the fact that she is facing a national system that is morally and intellectually bankrupt; but her anti-European record inhibits many French voters disillusioned with mainstream parties from supporting her.
Here we will merely note that a stalemate between Macron and Marine will render France politically unstable making it all the easier to exploit economically and politically.
Instead we will simply limit ourselves to pointing out that the snake oil salesmen of Euroscepticism are not conducting as brisk a business as they hoped they would.
It is high time that they approach current affairs with a strategic eye, real knowledge of the world they inhabit and a will to power. Even if they are unwilling to do as much, they should at least revise their menu, because the current one is not as popular as they originally imagined.