Age of Populists

 Rise of Far Right Populism in Europe Ahead of EU Elections 

by Punsara Amarasinghe and Eshan Jayawardane

Populism in Europe as a civilizational legacy has a deeply rooted history which dates back to Greco
Roman antiquity and as it has been recorded by classical historians like Livy,
the overarching political structure of Roman republic nailed by populism that
arose as a result of the loopholes of the system. The role of PubliusCloudius
against Roman nobility during the late republic was a reflection of how
populist discourse functioned in classical world.

Nevertheless the principles
emerged after the post second world war Europe such as social welfare system,
social democracy and cultural integration reduced the gravity of populist
discourse as a powerful political tool. Moreover the mass migration of
political refugees from Eastern Europe to Western Europe during cold war was a
phenomenal factor that encouraged west and its citizens to accept refugees or
asylum seekers more dearly and it was rather a display of European values. But  as all good things come to an end this wave of immigrations from Non-European countries to Western Europe gradually conceived the seeds of socio economic and political turmoil in the continent that finally
paved the path for a greater revival of populist politics in Europe.

Especially the political
trajectory created with the Syrian refugee crisis since 2015 in Europe has
compelled the people to look for Right wing politics as an alternative. Recent
discussion held in Warsaw, Poland between Italian deputy prime minister
MatteoSalvini and JaroslawKaczynsi shows the spark of far right populist
coalition in European Union against its center right more socio democratic
leadership of Germany and France. The significance of this meeting lies in the
fact that how EU politics has been changed in the recent years before its
troubled policies over the illegal immigration and refugee crisis and this
Polish Italian axis seems to create a decisive impacts upon the upcoming
elections to EU parliament.

As a matter of fact in the past,
it never really mattered much if the Euro election was carried by the left or
the right: the result was the same anyway. The parliament has always been keeper of the federalist flame, but the unorthodox political upheavals Europe envisaged for past two years have such as BREXIT in 2016 and Trump’s victory in
US presidential elections have upset the center right liberal orthodoxy in EU.
Moreover it is a fact not be ignored that how national politics in European
countries have taken a populist bend as a consoling since most of the common
people in Europe are gutted by the refugee crisis and economic deprivation.  Especially being the undisputed forerunner in EU Germany has faced severe social issues since 2015 as Angela Merkel  decided to not to close Germany’s borders resulting in the arrival of more than one million of people.

Last August in Italy the Migrants
mainly coming from former Italian colony Eretria had been stranded at a port in
Sicily before Italian deputy premier Salvini finally allowed them to
disembarked after Ireland and Catholic Church in Italy agreed to take most of
them in. Apart from Italy most of European states have been exposed to the wave
of populism mixed up with far right ideological elements. For an example
elections held in Sweden in 2018 September dragged the country into a political
limbo as the results of the elections did not leave either main parliamentary
block with a majority and its far right anti-immigrant party Sweden democrats
won 17.6% of the votes. Being a country that has resisted populist politics and
far right wing ideology since the end of its notorious dictator Farco’s era,
Spain too has witnessed the new wave of populism in its national level
politics. The dazzling impact created by Santiago Abascal’sVox party at the
election held in Andalusia by gaining 10.97 % of the votes and 12 out of 109
cannot be ignored despite the fact that his party is still in its infancy
stage.

Populist discourse spreading across Europe has not been emerged out of the blue as it is imbued with how common people in Europe perceive the socio economic and political circumstances
currently. It was a misconception that many analysts believed that rise
populism sprang from the financial collapse and unemployment, because it is evident
that the rise of populism has not been solely attributed to the economic
crisis. If economic growth had been decisive in Poland, which enjoyed the
faster growth rate in Europe between 1989 and 2015, the populist Law and
Justice Party would never have become the country’s dominant political force.

The bitter truth portraying from the rise populism is non-other than Europe antipathy over mass immigration and their concern for preserving common European values. This aptly shows from how
Hungarians have rallied around Mr. Victor Orban as he triumphantly calls himself the defender of Christian Europe. On the other hand such xenophobic notions like cultural preservation, growth of Islam have been clearly captured by populist parties as drawbacks crated by the apathy of European Union and its center right liberal democracy. Perhaps the influence coming from Putin’s
Russia can be taken as one pivotal factor that has intensified the populist discourse, because president Putin’s knack on ethno nationalism and religious traditionalism seem to have allured the populist movements in Europe.


It is a fact beyond dispute that therises of populist political parties under its far right ideologies in the
backdrop of European Union parliamentary elections have destabilized the continuation
of European integration under liberal center right outlook. The populist plan to expand their numbers in EU parliament in 2019 May elections have begun to upset the ostensible stability of EU and its French German leadership or perhaps this year Europe will face the arch encounter between newly emerged far right populism and the social democracy that has been the ruling slogan in Europe since 1968 in an open space.

Punsara Amarasinghe is a PhD candidate at Institute of Law and Politics at Scuola Superiore Sant Anna, Pisa Italy. He held a research fellowship at Faculty of Law, Higher School of Economics in Moscow and obtained his Masters from International Law at South Asian University, New Delhi. He served as a visiting lecturer at Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo Sri Lanka and author can be reached at punsaraprint10@gmail.com

Eshan Jayawardane holds BA in Sociology from Delhi University and MA in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He is currently serving as a guest lecturer at Sri Lanka Open University. He can be reached at eshan.jayawardane@gmail.com