A specter haunts Europe: xenophobic and anti-European populism.

The prolonged financial crisis that has immersed Europe into a deep economic and social deterioration, reflected in unprecedented unemployment rates (26.3 million, 10% of the block’s population), recession (that according to the last report from the European Commission will continue until 2015) and cut backs in social services, is now expressed in the surprising electoral boom of a new political phenomenon: the xenophobic, anti-European and right-winged populism. The politic model of Democracy and Welfare State developed throughout decades in the old continent is challenged by a politic expression that presents different versions and has multiple sides but which shares a set of similar motivations. They are movements that express a deep discontent with the status quo resulting from the economic crisis, mainly with its excessive amount of unemployed people. They have lost hope and show a serious fear of the future and a strong hostility towards ‘the outside world’, specifically towards the European Union, the forces of globalization, immigrants and foreigners.

The struggle against immigration always appears as the great common ground, accused of ‘robbing’ jobs, of being the main actor of insecurity and delinquency. They vindicate strong governments, autocratic leaders and despise the institutions and traditional parties that have characterized the political scenario of the European Union since its establishment. They are all deeply nationalist.

Its latest expression was the success of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in Great Britain. This right-winged party outsider, clearly anti-European and anti-immigration, which the very own David Cameron defined as a set of ‘fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists’, got 25% of the votes in the elections of the municipal councils that took place a few weeks ago. But the UKIP is not alone in its electoral success. From the National Front in France to Beppe Grillo’s eclectic Five Star movement in Italy, to the racist and anti-Semite Jobbik in Hungary, the populists, who distill loathing for the European Union and immigration, are obtaining between 10% and 25% in the elections they participate in and, in some cases such as Beppe Grillo’s in Italy and very soon the UKIP in Great Britain, they get to tackle governability and hold decision power over the agenda.

Political mistakes made by many of the national governments and by the own European Union, and more specifically by the Germanic guidance of the Eurozone, have contributed to the transformation of the ‘euro- skepticism’ into ‘europhobia’; a feeling that has generated a favorable breeding ground for the populist and organized activism currents. Unemployment and migration have added a new ingredient to make the ‘europhobia’ acquire a nationalist and right-winged ideological connotation. On its part, the inefficiency of the traditional parties to identify effective solutions for the crisis contributed to the disbelief regarding the institutions and to demanding autocratic leaderships.

The consequences of electoral results favorable to populism already show their effects on the European political scenario which will be enhanced as the crisis and unemployment deepen.

The Prime Minister Cameron, beyond calumniating the UKIP, took note of the political shift of his own bases and taking the opportunity of the Queen’s speech before the Parliament, imprinted an additional change of course towards the right on his policies by announcing disincentives on immigration and limitations in the access to social benefits. The ruling on the referendum regarding England’s permanence in the European Union is still pending and so is the consequent risk that populism’s incidence might force it to sever bonds with the European fate.

Beppe Grillo even ended up paralyzing Italian politics for weeks impeding the formation of a new government. It will not be easy for the Prime Minister to deal with a fragmentized and strongly anti-European Parliament.

In France, François Hollande’s government celebrated its first year with a multitudinous protest demonstration and an abrupt decay in popularity. Surely, if the elections were today, the National Front would electorally capitalize that populist discontent.

But, other than the electoral confirmation of its growth, what tendency hides behind this xenophobic and anti-European phenomenon?

To begin with, there is an antidemocratic conception of the politic system. While democracy is based in the confrontation of different perspectives and alternative political options, populism takes for granted that there is a single solution to all problems, which makes political debate unnecessary, the people has a single will and what matters is representing it: in Europe’s case, abandoning the European Union, the Euro and kicking out immigrants. It is that simple.

The Spanish writer Valenti Puig in a vibrant statement in Spain’s El País on May 4th, warned about the tendency and the political risks populism implies: ‘if this speech infiltrates the middle classes, the risk is significant. It invites to predict European elections where in little over a year, the populist kermis would move forward like an expansive specter. The precipitated decline of the middle classes could alter the system and favor in the respective national elections the lack of governability due to fragmentation’.

There is no doubt the analysis of Europe’s financial crisis transcends the economic and social indicators. The political scenario worsens as austerity measures deepen. In addition to the risk of a prolonged recession and the fragmentation of the Eurozone, regarding which much has been written, there are risks of lack of governability as a consequence of the populisms’ electoral growth already evidenced in Greece, Italy and England. Consequently, not only will it not suffice to contribute with 500 billion euros to the ESM (European Stability Mechanism) or lowering interest rates, but the emergence of strong and effective politic leaderships within the limits of democratic parties will also be necessary, ones capable of summoning society around the recovery of a brighter possible future, which will revert concentration and promote equity as strategy to exit the crisis, acknowledging the contribution of technology, innovation and the complementation between countries as pillars for a sustainable European and global development.

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