Fascist International? Note on EU Parliamentary Election Results

european union

Fascism is always latent in a Republic, and makes its appeal in underhand ways. They incite you to believe that the survival of your family is dependent on the survival or expansion or maintenance of the Republic itself and scoop up your vote in their net. As a consequence 174 fascists were elected to the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group, the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) and the European Reformist and Conservative (ERC) groups of the 751 strong European Parliament at the end of May.

In Italy the leader of the winning party the League is Matteo Salvini. Accused of violating the message of the cross by monsignor Giancarlo Bregantini, Catholic bishop of Campobasso, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister and President of the League, Salvini, defended his recent laws to more easily deport refugees by claiming he was only doing what Italians were asking him to do. Many do oppose him. Yet taken together the left and liberals in Italy got only 33.3% of votes, the two larger and two smaller fascists together 66.6%.

Matteo Salvini is a highly driven politician who started out on the left. His trajectory is closely linked to the transformation of the League itself from a regional separatist party to a national party. The transformation cost it many supporters, who oppose its fascist incarnation. Yet its anti-immigrant stance combined with a more apparent than real promise to simplify the taxation system won the League 34.3% of the Italian vote in the EU Parliamentary elections, twice its previous strength. Matteo Salvini has plans to create a Europe of Nations and Freedom, the name of his political group in the European Parliament, which he founded during a previous stint as MEP. Immigrants must pay the price for the Republican turn of European politics.

To be a political group in the EU Parliament any group needs at least 25 MEPs from at least 7 countries. The other party in the ENF is Marine Le Pen’s fascist party Rassemblement national that won 23.3% of the French vote, 22 of France’s 74 seats. The League has 28 seats. The others ENF MEPs are 3 from Austria’s FPÖ, 2 from Czechia’s Freedom and Direct Democracy party and 3 from Belgium’s Flemish anti-Islamic anti-immigration Vlaams Belang party. For the ENF as a whole 58 MEPs in their group in 2019 is 20 more than in 2014.

The other Italian fascist party, the M5S, the national coalition partner of the League, got 17% of the Italian vote, but were beaten into third place by a resurgent Democratic Party (PD), that has got its act together under its new leader Nicola Zingaretti. Zingaretti like other anti-fascists in the world now has to try and provide an answer to the appeal to the security of the Republic against minorities, foreigners and other internal threats, that is the hallmark of fascism. Fascism destroys politics. But can fascism be defeated without a civil war or an external conqueror?

The other fascist group in the EU Parliament is an anti-EU political group, the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group (EFDD). The 14 M5S MEPs from Italy join it after the May 2019 elections, plus 11 from the fascist AfD in Germany and 29 MEPs from the UK’s fascist Brexit Party. These three parties share a hatred of immigrants and a desire to take control of an all white race country outside the EU. If representatives from other countries do not join it will have to merge with another group, as indeed will ENF. Newly elected Brexit Euro MP Alexandra Phillips appealed to Brexit supporters to woo voters by “communicat[ing] that Brexit is progressive. It means changing the way a stagnated and outdated trading system works. Brussels is a one-stop-shop for big business and big banks to manoeuvre in the corridors of power in the interests of profit, not people. The Customs Union facilitates ongoing exploitation of the developing world, trapping three quarters of the workforce of Sub-Saharan Africa in agrarian toil at the behest of 30,000 corporate lobbyists in Brussels. Explain that while international cooperation on big issues, such as climate change, is vital, this exists within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. No need for us to remain a vassal state of the EU. Besides, Brussels’ handling of carbon trading is often cynical and corrupt and shifts the blame onto poorer countries. The UK already does better than our continental neighbours and would continue to do so.”

Fascist appeal is not only to base selfish instincts of majoritarian nationalism. The selfish instinct can also be painted as progressive, an appeal to be “in control” in the face of international realities, “communicated” by slick business women and men from the city. Fascists garner votes by inciting you to gang up on weak minorities, usually foreigners whether actual or racially profiled, but they don’t always say it out loud. And those who vote for them often deny that this is the fascist position. A racist comment by a fascist leader will be laughed off as a joke. On the other hand sometimes fascists themselves come to power as jokers. Fascism is simply the art of creating enemies to defend the Republic, as if a Republic was needed in the first place, let alone in need of defending.

The European Reformist and Conservative group (ERC) has 26 MEPs from Poland’s PIS (Law and Justice) party, 5 from the Brothers of Italy party, 5 from the fancy new so-called sophisticated European fascist party the Forum for Democracy FvD in the Netherlands, also 4 from Czechia’s ODS Civic Democratic Party, 4 Conservative and Unionists from the UK, 3 from the Belgian New Flemish Alliance N-VA, 2 from Slovakia’s Freedom and Solidarity party and 1 from its Ordinary People and Independent Personalities party, also 3 Sweden Democrats (SD), 2 from the Finns Party, 2 from the All For Latvia! – For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK, and 1 from Pro Romania, 1 from the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance or EAPL–CFA, 1 from the Danish People’s Party, and 1 from the Patriotic Coalition in Croatia.

Thus three fascist groups ENF, EFDD and ERC have 174 out of 751 seats. There are 8 other far right independent MEPs, but once the Brexit MEPs leave, these fascists will not be able to form a majority in the EU Parliament.

On the other hand it is likely that in the 2027 elections they will have the majority as Fortress Europe becomes the unquestioned lowest common denominator for the continuation of the European Union project.

Fascists break with all immediate constraints to act decently and compassionately towards minorities and immigrants and foreigners and internal enemies of the State, for the immediate purpose of saving the Republic. The fact that a Republic does not need saving, that by definition it is a construct that can easily be made to go away by anyone whose confidence in nature is greater than in man-made structures; this does not occur to fascists.

Thus as Boris Johnson the prospective new Prime Minister in the UK said, there is no difference between the ERC and the EFDD and the ENF positions on immigration. Europeans are finding it ever easier to fascicise their Union because their devotion to nation and man-made civilisation is stronger than their openness to a wild and free humanity.

The currently still non-fascist European People’s Party (the group of Christian Democrats) is the largest group in Germany, with 29 MEPs, and in total the EPP group in the European Parliament has 177 MEPs from 26 of the 28 EU countries. Though this represents a loss of 38 seats compared to 2014, the EPP remains the largest party in the EU Parliament. Liberals who themselves are usually anti-fascist nonetheless often deny that fascists are fascists and prefer to label them populist that could be equally likely be from the left as the right. This is because liberals have no values other than political ideology of the State by which they judge the State. They believe only in the Rule of Law and in liberal democracy, even long after the fascists have dismantled that apparatus to get themselves elected and stay here. This is the position the EPP group is in. Conservative Christians are very much to blame for encouraging nationalism, conservatism and an obsession with the greatness of nation, thus opening the doors to EU Republicanism which is nothing other than fascism with 21st century characteristics.

Sometimes the far left are guilty of alienating the liberals and thus themselves let in the fascists by preventing the formation of a strong anti-fascist coalition of themselves and liberals. Left puritanism in all sorts of forms as well as left dilution thus often precedes the entry of fascists. In short, the right shift of all parties has facilitated the arrival of 174 out of 751 fascist MEPs in the EU Parliament, an increase of 91 compared to 2014.

In the UK the fascist Brexit party won 31.6% of the vote in the UK and the far right anti-immigrant Conservative party won 9.1% of the vote. If the Labour vote of 14.1% which is also anti-EU is added, fascist, far right, and isolationist parties won 54.8% of the vote in the UK, the liberals of various kinds got 45.2% and were thus defeated. Entry of fascism in the UK thus is the outcome of loss of prophetic charm and instead appeasement of fascists by the Labour party.

In Germany all the political parties are against open borders and are in favour of regulated immigration from non EU countries. They are thus all German nationalist and EU nationalist parties and anti-immigrant parties to varying degrees. The only difference is that wheas the right want to keep non degree holders out, the Greens want to give skilled workers with experience work permits too. For this reason the centre party of Christian Democrat/EPP retained its lead with 28.9% of the vote, losing only 8.4% of the vote to far right and fascist parties. The ruling socialist coalition party and the left in opposition lost 11.5% and 1.5% of the vote respectively to Greens and the conservative liberal FDP. The Greens are now the second most popular party with 20.5% of the vote with a youth base. Socialists are third with 15.8%, and fascists together have around 18% with other very small parties the rest. In Germany Greens are part of the nationalist liberal replacement of the social democrat parties. Older voters are with social democrats, younger ones with Greens.

In Austria centre right FPÖ gained votes and retains its lead with 34.5%, social democrats second with 23.9%, confined to Kaernten and Vienna; the fascist ÖVP in Austria is at 17.2%, Greens at 14%. In France the fascist party Rassemblement national got most votes, with 23.3% compared to 22.4% for centre right party of President Macron. Greens come third with 13.4%, Republicans, socialists and left have under 10% each. Only the Netherlands saw a retreat of the fascists, but then a new more sophisticated party is already on the rise there.

Possible Coalitions in the new EU Parliament

The second largest group after the EPP are the Social&Democrats with 149 MEPs. This is 36 MEPs less than in 2014. Greens/EFA have 69, the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) have 39, and there are 28 other left party MEPs. And the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE&R) is the 3rd largest group with 107 MEPs. This group added 48 seats compared to 2014.

Though the big coalition of EPP and S&D that ruled the EU Parliament for the last few decades is defeated, on the other hand a new left coalition can be formed consisting of S&D, ALDE&R, Greens/EFA, European United Left and Others, to resist fascists. A centric coalition of EPP, S&D and (ALDE&R) could also form a majority. On the other hand EPP, ECR, ENF, EFDD, Others and Independents could also form a majority until the Brexit MEPs leave, therafter they could not.

In short, the fascists are for now not in a position to impose their agenda of killing every person who attempts to enter Europe from the Rest of the World. Yet they represent the common politics of Fortress Europe to which all EU parties subscribe. In the medium term the EU project will be a Europe of fascists. Fascists usually enter the political arena when other political parties are floundering, usually due to a failure of the political party or coalition of parties to weather some kind of economic downturn or changed economic reality, thus opening up the space for the fascists to enter and catch hold of the wave of unpopularity against them. Sometimes the liberal political parties have themselves diluted their ideologies and alienated their core voter base to appease the socially and economically powerful fascist businessmen who are exercising behind the scenes political power in the lead up to the crisis. The they are easily defeated. This is of course what happened in India with the Congress when it was defeated by the BJP.

Either way the fascism in the society is always latent. If other political parties do not provide a vision and prophetic appeal of their own, fascists will enter the vacuum. The fascists are usually well educated, slick, and delusional, much like ISIS suicide bombers such as those in Dhaka or Colombo. They study at business schools and get into politics to simplify a complex world by appealing to hate.

A recent article by fascist David Frume, George Bush’s speech writer and biographer, is entitled “If Liberals Won’t Enforce Borders, Fascists will.” The title shows that fascism is the lowest common denominator of Republican politics in the world today. OECD statistics categorise as foreigners both foreign born people with foreign nationality and foreign born citizens. It shows that whites believe that once you are a foreigner always a foreigner. A foreigner today in the White West stays a foreigner despite their nationality. So here we have the fascist framework of the white settlor run international system, run from Washington, USA, as the new EU Republicanism. A world without borders and a non-racist world are yet to shape the prophetic vision of any political party in Europe let alone any OECD country. In the next EU Parliament socialists and the left may temporarily ride a short wave of humane prophecy and join with Greens for a majority, but it will not last.

As to defeating the Fascist International to which the EU belongs, by war, the question is who is the external attacker. Russia may not be an interested candidate as it has too much to loose. Other countries in the Fascist international apart from Europe are the USA, Turkey, Brazil, Russia itself, and now India, where Narendra Modi’s Bharatya Janata Party, a Hindu Nazi party, won that big majority in Parliament. There are simply no socialist countries that could take on these fascist monsters in war. The only way to defeat the Fascist International may be for them all to fight each other, at great cost of life to millions.

Anandi Sharan is a political commentator


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