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Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
Tue Nov 1, 2016, 08:20 AM Nov 2016

Brexit just the start. EU new far right to transform political landscape

... The EU has never been good at “control”, as the veto of the EU-Canada deal by the Walloon parliament in Belgium has demonstrated. Instead, it has a political culture characterised by compromise and consensus. The language of Europe is littered with “-ities”: mutuality, solidarity, subsidiarity … Power is diffused, for historical and cultural reasons we all understand.

But this EU culture has always been at odds with that elective dictatorship, the UK constitution. Fundamental principles, entrenched rights, legal scrutiny of political decisions, these had never been the English way (they may see things differently in Scotland); instead we rely on precedent and convention...

... The danger is that Brexit will further empower the strong state of which the prime minister is an admirer... A frightening demonstration of who, post-referendum, is “taking back control”.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/nov/01/universities-suffer-brexit-britain-refugee-children


... They (far-right parties across the EU) have made a very public break with the symbols of the old right’s past, distancing themselves from skinheads, neo-Nazis and homophobes. They have also deftly co-opted the causes, policies and rhetoric of their opponents. They have sought to outflank the left when it comes to defending a strong welfare state and protecting social benefits that they claim are threatened by an influx of freeloading migrants.

They have effectively claimed the progressive causes of the left – from gay rights to women’s equality and protecting Jews from antisemitism – as their own, by depicting Muslim immigrants as the primary threat to all three groups. As fear of Islam has spread, with their encouragement, they have presented themselves as the only true defenders of western identity and western liberties – the last bulwark protecting a besieged Judeo-Christian civilisation from the barbarians at the gates...

... They have shed some of the right’s most unsavoury baggage while responding to both economic anxiety and fear of terrorism by blending a nativist economic policy – more welfare, but only for us – and tough anti-immigration and border security measures. Their message is beginning to resonate widely with a fearful population that believes the liberal governing elite no longer listens to them.

Brexit was just the start. Europe’s new far right is poised to transform the continent’s political landscape
– either by winning elections or simply by pulling a besieged political centre so far in its direction that its ideas become the new normal. And when that happens, groups that would never have contemplated voting for a far-right party 10 years ago – the young, gay people, Jews, feminists – may join the working-class voters who have already abandoned parties of the left to become the new backbone of the populist right...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/01/the-ruthlessly-effective-rebranding-of-europes-new-far-right
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Brexit just the start. EU new far right to transform political landscape (Original Post) Ghost Dog Nov 2016 OP
Poland has always been at odds with Germany PhilTaylor Dec 2016 #1
The supposed letter appears to be a forgery, Ghost Dog Dec 2016 #2

PhilTaylor

(1 post)
1. Poland has always been at odds with Germany
Fri Dec 16, 2016, 07:11 AM
Dec 2016

Poland has always been at odds with Germany.
Here is some more meat to it.
Kaczyński puts Poland at odds with Germany
These days everyone is distracted by Brexit, but as it turned out today Europe is shaking because of the growing tensions between Germany and Poland which simply can't stay unnoticed.
This refers to the letter supposedly written by the vice-chancellor of Germany Sigmar Gabriel to the president of the European Council Donald Tusk with an open appeal to punish Great Britain for Brexit.

Read more here
http://www.articlesreader.com/?p=6161

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