Populism and global politics: Complex relations, periodic clashes
Certainly, things will only get
worse of the Populists were able to raise to power in a number of European
countries, which threatens the destruction of the European Union and its
diverse social fabric, which local laws do not differentiate between the local
population and other migrants, with a limited societal discrimination.
The European Union was formed in
accordance with the Maastricht Treaty in the early 1990s, however, the plan for
the formation of the union itself began long before that, when the European Coal
and Steel Community was formed between six European countries, most notably
France and Germany, in the early fifties of the last century.
According to the British, the EU
has adversely affected employment rates for Britons, as European and other
nationalities were given the opportunity to go to Britain and compete with them
over their jobs. This was one of the most important pillars of the Brexit
campaign to get out of the EU.
On the other hand, a number of populists see that the idea of integration with other countries is detrimental to the local culture, which could be wiped as time passes.
Open Borders
Moreover, the populists reject the idea of open borders and consider them a clear threat to national security.
Since economic integration is in dire need for open borders to facilitate the flow of labor forces, services and goods, populists stand against the idea of economic integration, as they deem it a mechanism used by terrorist organizations to infiltrate their countries and threaten their national security. Therefore, populists also demand renegotiating the Schengen Agreement and all agreements that would post a threat to their national security, indirectly.
‘Indirectly’ here means that these treaties were reached to achieve a certain purpose, however, this might carry other side effects that cannot be ignored, such as the Paris terrorist attacks in 2015, as the attacks were planned in Brussels and carried out in Paris.
The idea of nationalism is also one of the most important points for which the extreme-right rejects economic and political integration; as new generations are being raised to loyalty to transnational nationalism instead of their own countries.
The extreme-right sets national sovereignty as a top priority, in other words, what would happen if a continental EU institution adopted a mandatory decision rejected by the national institutions within the union itself?
The answer is clear; as national institutions must abide by the decision or sanctions will be imposed over them, which may include revoking their rights to vote for a specific period of time, in accordance with the procedures adopted within the union.
For example, there was a debate between a number of European countries regarding the status of refugees, as Germany wanted to return them to the initial state that received them, this was rejected by Italy, which as a beach country, it receives many refugees. Also, Poland and Hungary refused the idea of redistributing them over European countries, as they considered this a threat to their national security.
The Brexit campaign took advantage of the idea that the EU have the ability to influence the national sovereignties, in order to garner a high voter turnout in favor of exiting the EU, as nationalists promoted the idea that the EU is occupying Britain and imposing decisions that are prejudicial to its national sovereignty.
The extreme-right also believes that the EU can influence the local sovereignty of countries, for example, when the EU pressured the Italian government led by Silvio Berlusconi into resignation and handing the power to Mario Monti in 2011. In 2013, the Five Star populist movement achieved a stunning victory in the election, winning 25.6% of the vote in the Chamber of Deputies. This made it the most popular single party in Italy, and leaving it as the third force in a ‘hung’ parliament between a center-left coalition led by the PD and a center-right one led by Berlusconi.
This intervention may be in favor of the populist movement in Italy, but in general, the European Union is intervening and exerting pressure to neutralize the influence of the extreme right, which rejects the idea of the European Union itself.
Fear of Collapse
In Sweden, Right-wing parties demand renegotiation of European agreements, threatening to leave the EU if their demands are not met. This means that if extreme-right and populist parties did not make it to power, they will push the EU into an abyss, each country will return to use its national currency again, and nationalism will grow stronger, which will provoke ethnic conflicts once again.
The populists seek to maximize the interests of their nation by pursuing non-cooperative confrontational policies. For example, since President Trump came to power in the United States in 2016, he has created a kind of instability in US relations with its allies around the world.
In other words, Trump argued with European countries to raise their military spending to 2% of the total GDP, claiming that the United States bears the brunt of protecting Europeans.
Trump sought to increase military expenditures without taking into account that a number of European countries are small in size and do not have big armies, like Iceland.
In the 1999 legislative election the FPÖ placed second and won 26.9% of the vote, its best-ever result in a nationwide election, and for the first time came ahead of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) by a small margin.
The FPÖ eventually reached a coalition agreement with the ÖVP in 2000, but ceded the chancellorship to the ÖVP to appease international opinion. The FPÖ soon became uncomfortable with governing and fell sharply in the 2002 legislative election. Therefore, relations between the EU and Austria were strained, reaching full bureaucratic levels, and the EU threatened Austria with imposing sanctions that could reach revoking its right to vote in the European Council if it violated the rules of the union.
This affirms claims by the extreme-right on which the Brexit campaign was based, because the EU intervened in the internal affairs of its member states and exerted a negative influence on them.
In the end, the EU’s ability to deal with a number of important security and economic issues such as immigration and terrorism will play a role in determining the role of the extreme-right during the coming period, whether to rise, or fall.
