FOR the past 20 years or so the European Union is being projected, at least by a group of fervent dogmatists, as a constantly growing span that has extended its domain north-south from the United Kingdom to Greece and Austria, as well as west-east from France to the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
So far, so good! But, as we are learning fast, the EU ideology has now been converted into a concept that represents a gradual and definitive end to local civilizations, literatures, histories and traditions. The credo now being imposed on the rest of the continent by the bureaucracy based in Brussels can be resumed as this: “Europe is a global village with no history of its own; it is multicultural!”
This is far away from the concept originated by the three founding fathers of the European Union. Robert Schuman of France, Alcide de Gasperi of Italy and Konrad Adenauer of Germany had actually intended to resolve forever the inner disputes that had led to the two World Wars. A united Europe, they had believed, would put to halt all controversies that had in the past ended in armed conflicts.
But their theory was very different from the pensée unique currently being promoted by American capitalism according to which all deductions that link a nation with history are bad for business. A human being is, first of all, a consumer and everything else comes later! As it is not possible to sell hamburgers, smartphones and computers to every individual living in countries separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, how about turning them all into EU citizens?
Today’s politically correct media are too shy to mention the fact that the main reason for Great Britain’s decision to leave the European Union is the exploding immigrants’ population, especially from Africa.
But things are changing fast!
Newer members from the south and east of the continent such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, lately joined in by Austria and, according to noticeable signs soon by Italy, repudiate all notions of multiculturalism that are being forced upon them by Brussels. They want their own countries with their own frontiers which is currently not the case under EU regulations.
In addition, three historical developments are shaking Europe by its roots: first, the election of Donald Trump as the US president and his frequent declarations against the so-called global warming and global village creeds; second, Brexit and third, the latest elections in Germany that have considerably reduced the power of Angela Merkel, the leading power behind the multicultural ideology.
Commenting on the fears of the eastern and southern countries over a borderless Europe, an editorial in the daily Le Figaro says: “Though the Brussels-based EU bureaucracy is far from being a Politburo of the old Soviet days, all European societies are nevertheless deeply linked with their histories, traditions and cultures. Europe is certainly not a ‘supermarket’ and its historical values, especially justice and freedom of expression, are not negotiable.”
The writer is a journalist based in Paris
Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2018
