On 9 June, elections to the European Parliament will be held and there is simply a general belief that they will lead to nothing good. Right, far-right and extremist parties will get in many associate States new mandates, which can change the balance of power in Parliament and in another institutions of the European Union.
That things have already taken a bad turn, you can see that we are affected by a wave of populist nationalism. Worse still, for the same reason, the multi-voice in politics turns into a zero-one dispute, where on 1 side anti-EU forces stand, on the another side pro-EU forces – and together, various parties are thrown into this another bag, from extremist left and green by social democrats and liberals to chadeks. It flattens all the political options in this polarised debate.
Already in erstwhile European elections, those who have tried to discuss various political concepts concerning the direction in which the Union should followThey faced a large challenge. Decisions taken by citizens at urns frequently stem from controversy at national level, including frustration at the functioning of the ruling parties, and are seldom motivated by orientation towards European policies. At best, the debate ends at the level of slogans: on the 1 hand, slogans aimed at "Europe of corporations" or "neoliberal Europe", and on the another hand, "bureaucrats from Brussels".
In the meantime, fewer people note that the European Union has made crucial advancement in fresh years. Much has changed for the better, although this process was slow and laborious.
If you compare present Zeitgeist with the policy pursued in the beginning of the decade after 2010, the difference is striking. shortly after the financial collapse, the Union switched to A brutal belt tightening strategy. The countries most affected by the economical collapse have not only been severely punished, but they have besides been forced to severe cuts in public spending, which has been reversed by years and has led to almost decades of stagnation throughout the euro area.
The clash between associate States almost blew up the Union and everything was covered with toxic, disgusting national-cultural rhetoric in which set "lazy southerners" with "hard-working, cost-efficient Northerners".
This paradigm nevertheless gradually changed after 2015. The answer to the pandemic was completely different. The money was collected jointly in financial markets and made available to all associate States, with the most affected countries receiving greater support. Recovery Fund EUR 750 billion, negotiated by the associate States in July 2020, was a live programme taken out of the Keynesist textbook. For the first time in history, the European Union as a community has taken loans on financial markets to support the economy and counter the economical cycle, especially in countries specified as Italy, where without specified policies the economical collapse would be the most severe.
The belt was no longer tightened so hard, due to the fact that at the time of the pandemic it was put aside fiscal rules. another policies have besides abandoned ideologically motivated economical liberalism. Minimum wage directive of 2022 obliges most associate States to improve the situation in less-paid sectors of the economy. It besides reinforced trade unions due to the fact that it states that associate States are to prepare a plan to increase the scope of collective agreements to 80%.
Those were different steps. Now, however, belt tightening policy is increasingly coming back: fiscal policy speaks again of "discipline", and the 'competitiveness' paradigm is again utilized to slow down wage increases and reduce costs for businesses regardless of the impact that this will have on request and employment.
The political shift to the right in European elections can so lead to a sharp return. If the left is weakened and the Conservatives of the European People's organization scope for the support of “moderate” right-wing populists (which She's willing to accept The outgoing president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will change the balance of power. This will affect economical and social policy, not to mention socio-environmental transformation and climate policy.
The same applies, of course, to national elections. If the more left-wing governments of different EU countries replace the right, they will block the progressive policy of the EU institutions. This has been clearly excellent in fresh months, for example in Finland and Sweden, where right-wing groups came to power. In May, Finland entered into force regulations limiting the right to strike.
These governments are no longer on the side of economical policy, which supports the well-being of average citizens and raises wages. In all of this, it is not helpful that the position of Finance Minister in the coalition German government is held by stubborn neoliberal Christian Lindner and blocks progress in social and economical policy at all levels.
When the European Commission becomes dependent on far-right figures specified as Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and her Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán, erstwhile it is elected by increasingly right-wing governments of the associate States and will deal with the Europarliament with greater representation of the right, it will prosecute a more right-wing policy – it is inevitable. Conservative ideology will grow stronger and nationalist national authorities will block ambitious EU economical and social programmes with empty slogans specified as "less Europe, more sovereignty".
The comparatively progressive spirit of the past fewer years can go back to past overnight.
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Robert Misik – Vienna author and essayist. His last book is named Politik von unten: Gelingt das Comeback der Socialdemocrat? (ed. Picus Verlag). He publishes texts in many newspapers, including “Die Zeit” and “Die Tageszeitung”. He was awarded the John Maynard Keynes Society Award for economical Publicity.
The article is simply a joint publication of magazines Social Europe and IPS-Journal. From English he translated Maciej Domagała.
