The Observer view on the crisis in Europe

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: October 22, 2017 at 4:36:47 AM EDT
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] The Observer view on the crisis in Europe
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> The Observer view on the crisis in Europe
> Beyond Brexit, from Catalonia to the Czech Republic, the European dream is under threat
> By Observer editorial
> Oct 21 2017
> <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/21/observer-view-catalonia-crisis-spain-europe-right-wing-elections-britain-role>
>
> The unprecedented measures initiated on Saturday by Spain’s government, aimed at thwarting Catalonia’s secession, are 
> but the latest expression of a developing, Europe-wide crisis of identity and political legitimacy. Mariano Rajoy, 
> the prime minister, was reluctant to resort to direct rule from Madrid, but faced by the stubborn and, in his view, 
> illegal defiance of the Catalan leadership, he clearly felt he had no choice. Rajoy’s intervention could defuse the 
> situation or, by triggering a formal declaration of independence, render it even more unstable.
>
> The drive for a separate Catalan state has causes specific to that region’s history and culture. But it has also been 
> fuelled by the perceived failures of national political leadership. Inconclusive elections in 2015 and 2016 shattered 
> the traditional dominance of the mainstream centre-left and centre-right parties. Rajoy’s conservative Popular party 
> has been damaged by corruption scandals. The Socialists registered their worst ever performance last year amid record 
> low turnout. Yet would-be mould-breakers such as Podemos failed to achieve a breakthrough.
>
> This rejection of politics as usual, and the consequent fragmentation of the body politic, finds powerful echoes 
> across Europe. Everywhere, or so it seems, newly minted or reviving political forces, sometimes benign, more 
> frequently not, are attempting to fill the vacuum. This weekend’s elections in the Czech Republic are a case in 
> point. Polls suggest the ruling, pro-EU Social Democrats face defeat by the upstart populist, Eurosceptic, 
> anti-immigrant Action of Dissatisfied Citizens led by a pro-Russia billionaire. In prospect is a coalition with the 
> rightwing Freedom and Direct Democracy party, which wants to quit the EU.
>
> Events in Prague recall in turn last week’s Austrian elections, which brought victoryfor the youthful conservative 
> People’s party leader, Sebastian Kurz, whose cynical tactic was to ape the extremist, xenophobic outlook of the 
> far-right Freedom party. Kurz now looks set to form a governing alliance with a party whose neo-Nazi origins and 
> ideology led the EU to boycott Austria in 2000, when the Freedom party first entered government. It is a measure of 
> how Europe has become more accepting of, or resigned to, far-right activism that no repeat boycott is mooted in 
> Brussels. More than half the Austrian electorate backed parties fiercely opposed to immigration, integration and 
> multiculturalism. Muslim and Jewish citizens are understandably alarmed.
>
> Now switch focus to northern Italy and, again, anger over political failings at the centre can be seen combining, 
> negatively and corrosively, with fears about personal and regional identity. This weekend’s referendums on increased 
> autonomy for Lombardy and the Veneto have at their heart distrust of the Rome government and resentment (and there 
> are echoes of Catalonia here) at the way the poorer south is supposedly subsidised by wealthy, industrialised Milan. 
> But in its tribalism, micro-nationalism and sociocultural exclusivity, the biggest regional party, the Northern 
> League, nurtures many of the unsavoury prejudices displayed by similar groups across the continent.
>
> [snip]
>
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