Rise of Populism in EU, Essay Example

How could we best explain the current rise of populism and extreme right politics in the European Union?

Introduction

Right-wing populism consists of political ideologies that attempt to resist the underlying political consensus existing within a political territory. They are considered populist since they appeal to the common man rather than the elites, hence the term right-wing populism. The rise of right-wing populism in the European Union (EU) can be best explained using national identity and nationalism theories (Durant 3; Wodak). The underlying assumption is that the right-wing populist parties have tended to mobilise the feelings of national identity against EU, since the Union was essentially an elite project that advocated for heterogeneity and European integration from the start.

Theory of national identity

The theory of national identity proposed by Guibernau (125-126) uses the ethnosymbolist approach to lay emphasis on the subjective elements of national identity. Hence, individuals with shared histories, myths and cultures within a particular ancestry tend to have a sense of solidarity (Smith 7-9). According to the theory, national identity of nations and their distinctive features can explain why certain political ideologies are formed (Rydgren 413-415).

Smith (7-9) pointed out that the national identity is concerned with a territory’s political community, common values, political ideologies and citizenship. The theory postulates that nations always have a common culture as well as a civic ideology, aspirations, ideas and sentiments that bind a population in unity (Smith 13-14).  The theory perceive a nation’s identity as being multidimensional and which may embrace five key attributes, namely mass public culture, historic territory, common public culture, common legal rights and a common economy. These attributes are identifiable in right-wing populism in Europe.

The rise in immigrants in European countries since the 1980s explains the rise in right-wing politics since the 1990s. In a bid to investigate, the discourse of right-wing populism in Europe, Swyngedouw and Ivaldi’s (2-4) did a comparative analysis of manifestoes of key right wing parties in Belgium (VB) and France (FN) to determine the core ideological beliefs since the 1990s. Ethnocentrist view of the ideologies was discerned. Within the two parties’ ideologies, immigrants are considered to threaten social actors, as a symbol of national decay and draining of state resources and damaging to the organic national community. According to Wilson and Hainsworth (13-17), the European Union has been held accountable for promoting non-European immigration, leading to the dramatic rise of rightwing parties such as Vlaams Blok (VB) in Belgium. In Britain, British National Party (BNP) has held similar ideological approach towards EU, hence has demanded the withdrawal from the Union.

Based on the theory, it is perceivable that the rightwing parties existing in Italy, Hungary, Greece, Germany, United Kingdom and France have spread propaganda on perceived threat of national identities from the ethnic minorities (Wodak). Others in Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Bulgaria have assumed a religious perspective by promoting fundamentalist Christian conservative reactionary agenda (EurActiv).

In Austria, political figures like Heinz-Christian Strache or Geert Wilders in Netherlands share a critical stance against immigrants and any such notions by EU institutions (EurActiv). According to a recent study by the German Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, right-wing populist parties are against all EU ideas of immigration, cultural diversity, pluralism and European integration. The same trend has been evident among right-wing extremist parties, which have used their presence in European Parliament to reinforce their populist notions in the so-called Culture War (Kulturkampf) against European identity (EurActiv).

The need to break all forms of heterogeneous Europe promoted by the EU since the 1990s also explains the rise in right-wing parties. These parties’ underlying idea has been to overcome the tendency of political elites and political systems to create fundamental homogenous national identities by promoting and sustaining the idea of heterogeneous national identities that accommodate diverse cultures, religions, ethnicities and genders (Wilson and Hainsworth 14). For instance, the manifesto of Belgium’s VB party indicates that the right-wing extremist party upholds an aberrant attitude towards European Union, which has tended to meddle in places where people’s sovereignty should prevail, such as promoting heterogeneity (Wilson and Hainsworth 14-17).

Theory of Nationalism

According to Gellner’s (1983) theory of Nationalism, the emergence of a national society encourages cultural homogenization based on the economic logic of the society, idea of progress and evolutionary technology. Hence, nationalism can only be managed by a process of national construction and cultural homogenisation. According to the theory, nationalism is a kind of collective consciousness, which promotes the feeling of belonging to an innovation called the national state (Smith 1-2). Hence, the ideology uses national identity as a basis for political and social action (Anderson 2-3). The theory can explain the rise of right-wing populism in Europe.

Ignazi (560) attributed the rise and success of far-right parties to the voter and social movements’ interests on national sovereignty and economic independence. Additionally, the extreme right parties were the outcome of dissatisfaction of citizens in the post-industrial era with the government on issues, such as globalisation of society and heterogeneity (Ignazi 217).

According to Smith (1-2), nationalism denotes a political theory that proposes that the national and political unit should correspond in kind and character. The primordial perspective of Nationalism Theory holds that, in modern states, the ethnic identity is inherent in the historical experiences that individuals, groups or families undergo (Llobera 1-3). Based on these perspectives, the rise of right-wing populism in EU can be understood.

In a survey of the right-wing parties across Europe, Wilson and Hainsworth (14-17) suggested three key attributes. These include populism, authoritarianism and nativism. Nativism refers to a combination of xenophobia and nationalism. As stated by Smith (2004), nationalism depicts a belief that an individual’s nationality has a status that is related to a sense of special historical mission, which is denied to the lesser people. Wilson and Hainsworth (14-17) interjects that the nativism is relevant to this belief in excluding non-nationals in state or cultural practices. Hence, nativism implies that right-wing parties oppose any likely intrusion on idealised community (Gemeinschaft). For instance, the Eurozone crisis has triggered anti-European Union sentiments by the right wing parties, which have promoted the ideas of dismissing weaker states like Greece to build national sovereignty. In Italy, the Lega Nord (LN) party has incessantly opposed the weaker south, or Wachter, on being elevated to European scale. In Finland, the True Finns party insisted that Portugal should not be bailed out. Rather, the government should concentrate on national issues (Wilson and Hainsworth 14-17).

Sharing national histories has also led to the rise of the parties of the far right in Europe. For instance, Anti-Semitism has been significant to the right-wing parties, specifically in Romania, Bulgaria and Baltic States, as they all share fascist history.

Basing on the theory of social mobilisation, which suggests that communication plays a significant role in unifying divergent people, while groups may also disunite because of communication differences, some analysts have commented that right-wing parties have used the media or published materials to mobilise feelings of national identity against EU (De Vries and Edwards 18). The same stance is taken by Mudde (201), who attributed the rise of right-wing parties over the past two decades to the explosion of media interest and literature on populist parties that promote nationalism.

Works Cited

De Vries, Catherine and Edwards, Erica. “Taking Europe To Its Extremes: Extremist Parties and Public Euroscepticism.” Party Politics, 15.1 (2009): 5-28

Durant, Isabelle, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Martin Hirsch, Gesine Schwan, Jean-Michel De Waele, Michel Hastings, Nicolas Levrat, Gerassimos Moschonas, Takis Pappas. The Rise of Populism and Extremist Parties in Europe. The Spinelli Group: Brussels, 2013.

EurActive. EU threatened by ‘rampant right-wing populism’, warns German think tank. EurActive 2014. 2014, 28 March 2014, <http://www.euractiv.com/eu-elections-2014/rampant-right-wing-populism-thre-news-532119>

Guibernau, Montserrat. Anthony D. Smith on nations and national identity: a critical assessment.” Nations and Nationalism 10.2 (2004): p.125–141.

Wilson, Robin and Hainsworth, Paul. Far-right Parties and discourse in euroPe: A challenge for our times. ENAR Foundation, 2012.

Ignazi, Piero. Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2003.

Mudde, Cas. “The Populist Radical Right: A Pathological Normalcy.” West European Politics 33.6 (2010): 1167-1186

Llobera, Joseph. Recent Theories of Nationalism. Institut de Ciències Polítiques i Socials: Barcelona, 1999.

Rainey, Gene. “An Application of the Theory of Social Mobilization to Arkansas.” Arkansas Academy of Sciences 15.10, (1961): 77-84

Anderson, Robert. National Identity and Independence Attitudes: Minority Nationalism in Scotland and Wales. The Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends, 2001

Rydgren, Jens. “Is extreme right-wing populism contagious? Explaining the emergence of a new party family.” European Journal of Political Research 44 (2005): 413–437

Smith, Anthony. Nationalism and Modernism. Routledge Publishers: London, 1998.

Swyngedouw, Marc and Ivaldi, Gilles. “The Extreme Right Utopia in Belgium and France: The Ideology of the Flemish Vlaams Blok and the French National Front.” West European Politics, 24.3 (2007): 1-22

Wodak, Ruth. Right wing populist parties on the rise. Cyprus Mail, 2014. 28 March 2014, <http://cyprus-mail.com/2014/03/04/right-wing-populist-parties-on-the-rise/>