Thread by @peterjukes

Check out @BylineTimes coverage of what the EU elections mean in the rest of Europe. Some takeaways follow. bylinetimes.com/2019/05/22/wha… via @BylineTimes

The Left is in retreat across Europe. The far right gains or loses at their expense, and from traditional conservatism. Why is this happening? What does it mean?

One continuous theme is that the right, though it disagrees on different elements in different countries, has conflated social liberalism with economic neoliberalism (though I hate the word and this will explain why)

This was the innovation of Law and Justice in Poland in the 90s. Though it claimed to hate post communism, it basically took on socialist policies of state aid and welfare - but ONLY for righteous true born Poles.

This pattern of paternalistic economics has been followed by all the Alt Reich imitators from Salvini, Wilders, Le Pen to Farage. We’ll talk about old school socialism when it comes to national identities. And criticise free markets when they can be characterised as globalist’

So the Far Right renaissance across Europe is an attack on social liberalism, hidden under the cloak of an attack on neoliberalism. It’s working well because people feel cheated and deprived, and blaming the nearest migrant for the failure of social services alway works.

But though this Bannon movement is an effective cømbination of widespread resentment, it cannot provide any practical solutions. Across Europe migrants provide more economic benefits to those who feel deprived than costs. It’s a hiding to nothing.

It doesn’t take a genius to see the fascist direction of this combination of hyper nationalism and nativist socialism - the elevation of the all knowing leader and the demonisation of traitors and free riders. But autarky is even less an option now than it was in the 30s

In the 30s, many European cultures were still highly militarised and colonial exploitation was still seen as a viable economic option. None of those conflict driven solutions are present now.

Apart from social wedge issues like trans rights, the only unifying theme I can see in these European far right parties is a clash of civilisations end times eschatology: though they can’t seem to agree whether Jews or Muslims are behind all the grooming gangs and ‘rapeugees’

Making an existential enemy of 1.3bn Muslims is not, long term, a smart move for 350 million Europeans. It’s not a real conflict, or one which in its own ridiculous terms, can be won.

Ultimately, all these dissatisfactions, which express themselves in hatred of migrants or ‘rootless cosmopolites’ can be traced back to the return of levels of inequality most of us (in Western Europe and the US) have not seen since before WW2

I’m no Marxist, but I do believe that ecomomics underpins all the ideological guff. Anyone who defends the economic status quo will never change hearts and minds until people see better housing, education and a future for their kids. When they don’t, they’ll seeek scapegoats

Wilders, Le Pen, Farage, Salvini, Orbán are liars offering cheap solutions. They will rob the people blind pretending to be on their side. They’re opportunist kleptocrats who use the anti-elitist language of ‘man of the PayPal’ populism to hide their elitist greed.

But they will win, and keep on winning, until real economic fairness is offered in the UK and Europe. The EU has clearly failed on this, because many of the other 27 countries (for all their welfare support) are just as bad as the UK in terms of inequality

So while I will vote for any remain party tomorrow, it is with a heavy heart, and understanding that the EU - as much as Cameron or May - has led us to this pretty pass when we have to decide between the racist Far Right and the conservative status quo which created it.