29 May 2024

ECIPE's Erixon: Tocqueville, the Revolution and the European Parliament election

In the French city of Tours, in the heart of the Loire Valley, we can find an explanation for Europe’s turbulent politics....What is going on? The support for these political rebels is the world turned upside-down for anyone with political education in post-war Europe.

In the French city of Tours, in the heart of the Loire Valley, we can find an explanation for Europe’s turbulent politics. Geert Wilders has recently won the Dutch election. Putin ally Robert Fico is back as the Prime Minister of Slovakia. Giorgia Meloni, with her political roots in Italy’s post-fascist movement, remains securely in power. Viktor Orban shows no signs of planning his departure.

The European Parliament elections are expected to lead to further successes for nationalists and populists. According to opinion polls, Alternative for Germany is the country’s second-largest party, attracting more German voters than the Social Democrats and the Liberals combined. In Austria, which also has a national election this year, the Kremlin-friendly Freedom Party has now become the largest party. And in Belgium, which will also elect a new government in June, Vlaams Belang – a Flemish separatist party whose predecessor (Vlaams Blok) was banned by a Belgian court 20 years ago due to its racism – is leading.

What is going on? The support for these political rebels is the world turned upside-down for anyone with political education in post-war Europe. But Charles Grandmaison, a young official in Tours’ city administration, points us to the right sources to understand the development. These sources tell us that the origins of Europe’s political turbulence lie in political centralization. Brussels’ political power has grown remarkably over several decades, creating an “administrative tutelage.” New regulations, writes an astute observer, “succeeded one another with such an unusual speed that government agents under orders often found it difficult to sort out how to comply.” New taxes and levies are introduced, but they are not enough to cover rapidly growing expenses. More debt is built up. The underlying economic philosophy, to the extent that there is still a coherent idea, is about preserving power – to the point that political leaders now “prefer stagnation over competition.”

Political accountability is lacking. It is said that we live in an era of polarization, but the elites actually become more alike each other: they dress the same and behave the same way. They are all educated at universities and have almost the same views. The political colour of commissioners may vary over time, but the direction has been the same – “the omnipotence of central power.” There is no third estate of citizens to hold leaders accountable. Journalists and the hommes de lettres of the time enchant rather than scrutinize power. Economists want even more governance and control and are dazzled by the efficiency of China. And individual freedom? May it rest in peace.

This criticism from the sources in Tours is perhaps a bit unfair and does not explain everything. But then again, they are not really about the EU or what is happening in Europe – at least not today. Grandmaison was an ambitious city archivist in Tours in the 19th century. If his name is known today, it is because he assisted with documents and sources in Alexis de Tocqueville’s magnificent work on the ancien régime and the French Revolution and the subsequent era of the barricades.

But Tocqueville, a liberal aristocrat better known for his study of American democracy, is also a thinker for our time. For politics is, figuratively speaking, once again on the barricades. Populists and nationalists are there, as are anti-racists, XR, and others on the illiberal left. The streets are also the place for yellow vests and vaccine conspiracy theories, Catalan separatists, and Spanish defenders of the constitution. Farmers block squares in Amsterdam and Berlin. Continental unions march again. Events far from Europe lead to passionate demonstrations even here. George Floyd’s death brought tens of thousands of demonstrators to the streets. Falun Gong meets many weekend strollers in city centers. The war in Gaza is also splitting Europe...

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