http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/talking-terms/europe-in-agony-trumps-triumph-raises-fears-of-the-continent-lurching-rightward-and-swiftly-falling-apart/
Europe In Agony: Trump’s triumph raises fears of the continent lurching rightward and swiftly falling apart November 12, 2016, 2:00 AM IST Dileep Padgaonkar in Talking Terms | Edit Page, US Election 2016, World | TOI The tremors of the tectonic shift in American politics have rattled Europe down to its very roots. Like much of the world, it was convinced that Donald Trump stood not the slimmest chance to move into the White House. But now that the unthinkable has come to pass it is at a loss to figure out how to adjust to what a French weekly called ‘Trump-apocalypse’. Trump’s election comes at a time when the continent has had to contend with serious problems on multiple fronts. It could do precious little to arrest, let alone roll back, Russia’s muscle flexing in the Ukraine and the takeover of Crimea. Add to this the massive influx of refugees, especially from Syria, jihadi terror attacks, niggardly economic growth and high levels of unemployment. To boot there is a pervasive fear that Brexit heralds the unravelling of the European Union. Taken together, these factors have triggered a rightward lurch in one European country after another. Hungary and Poland already have autocratic, right-wing governments. Austria could well have one soon. In France, the popularity of Marine Le Pen, leader of the extreme rightist National Front, is on the ascendant. Ultra-nationalist forces have reared their head in Germany and even in parts of Scandinavia, the bastion of European liberalism. Trump’s victory could give a major boost to such forces. The first test of their strength will be in France where the presidential election is due this coming spring. Le Pen shares Trump’s distrust of Muslim migrants. She is also hostile both to Nato and the European Union. Sensing that she might well be the main beneficiary of the outcome of the American poll, leaders of the main conservative and centrist parties have begun to sing a Trump-like tune. Trump is only the latest in a series of authoritarian, even demagogic, leaders who have received massive mandates from the electorate. This has happened in Russia, Japan, Turkey, the Philippines and in our own Mother India. If European countries follow suit, one would be well within one’s right to ask if the trend signals something pretty sinister: a growing animosity towards the democratic system itself. Significant in this regard is an opinion poll published in the influential daily Le Monde just the other day. It reveals a growing disenchantment with democracy. In 2014, three out of four French citizens of voting age preferred this system to any other. Today only two out of three of them do so. What is more, almost 20% of the population of voting age favours an authoritarian regime. The reasons, according to the survey, are primarily related to the disconnect between the ruling elites and the ruled. Time and again, the former have demonstrated their incompetence to address economic and social crises that have afflicted France for over four decades: the negative fallout of a no-holds-barred globalisation, the malfunctioning of the European Union and, not least, of the menace of jihadi terrorism. Nor has the establishment sought to assuage an acute and growing fear of the French viz the emasculation of what they cherish above all else: their national and cultural identity. Another spectre looms over Europe in the wake of Trump’s triumph: the spectre of the swift collapse of the Atlantic Alliance. Since the end of World War II, America has guaranteed Europe’s military security. Both have had a vested interest in each other’s economic prosperity. The alliance was rooted in their shared commitment to democracy, defence of human rights and the market economy. But the president-elect now wants Europe to pay America for the military protection and to bear the consequences of the trade war he is keen to wage against Mexico, China and Japan. Clearly, the bulwark of ‘shared values’ has begun to wobble. And it will well-nigh be shattered should the new tenant in the White House embrace Europe’s bête noire: Vladimir Putin. All of this has led some European commentators – such as Clemens Wergin of the German daily Die Welt – to ask whether Trump’s ‘America First’ policies foreshadow the end of the West as the world has known it for seven decades. As of now this terrifying question appears to have numbed the reflexes of European leaders. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
