CAS MUDDE - 2015 and the struggle for Europe’s core
2015 was the year
that everyone could see that the European emperor is not (not any longer)
wearing clothes. Worse, the emperor didn’t even deny that he was naked!
Devastating terrorist attacks, months of insecurity about
the Eurozone, huge electoral victories for populist parties, an unprecedented
refugees crisis... there is no doubt that 2015 was Europe’s annus
horribilis. Both the projects of the European Union and of European
liberal democracy were challenged in ways we have not seen before. The real
question for the coming year(s) is: was 2015 just a freak year, soon to be
forgotten, or a transformative year, shaping European politics for years to
come?
Whatever the answer to that question will be, 2015 was the
year that everyone could see that the European emperor is not (not any longer)
wearing clothes. Worse, the emperor didn’t even deny that he was naked!
Sure, European integration and liberal democracy had been
challenged before. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty did not only create the
foundations of the current European Union, but also gave birth to a slow but
steady growing Euroscepticism. Populist parties have been stable features of some European
countries since the late 1980s. And counter-terrorism has undermined liberal
democracy at least since 9/11.
The months-long negotiations between the Eurozone and the
new Greek populist government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was probably the
most traumatic period for Europe’s left. Many progressives saw in Tsipras the
man to end austerity within Europe, but soon found out that they had both overestimated
Tsipras’ competence and underestimated the EU’s stubbornness. As a consequence
of the Greek drama, many on the left lost their faith in the European project
and in the left populist alternative.
As soon as a Grexit was prevented, Europe was faced by a
refugees crisis that saw one million refugees, mostly from Syria and
Afghanistan, made their way to Europe. Frustration over weak external borders
and no longer existing internal borders led to a strong anti-EU response within
Europe’s right. This was worsened by the terrorist attacks in Paris,
particularly when irresponsible journalists and politicians claimed a link
between the terrorists and the refugees. Across the continent mainstream and
populist politicians called for the suspension of the Dublin Regulation and the
Schengen Treaty, two absolute pillars of the European Union and of the
fundamental values of European integration.
What stands out in both crises is the complete ideological
vacuum at the heart of the European political elite… read more:
