Thomas Fazi has weighed in on the EU electoral “surge” of the “Right”—on X twitter and at UnHerd. These two versions of his views are largely complementary. He spends most of his time explaining why EU elections won’t make much difference—with some exceptions. In the end, he rightly concludes that the whole point of this process is precisely to prevent elections from making much of a difference. Fazi makes this explicit in the closing paragraph to his article:
I'm not convinced that Christendom gave Europe a shared identity before the EU came along. European nations states have always hated each other and engaged in appallingly costly wars against each other. The EU will fall apart for the same reason that NATO and the USA will: they have always been, or are rapidly become, entities at odds with new, multipolar reality that grows stronger every day.
Who ever said a shared identity precludes conflict and mutual hatred? See, for example, human families.
And, I would add as counter-examples, the many times Europeans united against the common enemy of Islamic civilization. This dynamic even united Protestant, Catholic, and (almost) Orthodox Christians.
Too true. Additionally, a strong case could be made that Latin Christendom has always represented a project in progress, building on the remaining foundations of the Roman Empire in many respects. The task was to Christianize the barbarians tribal invasions from the 4th through the 11th centuries, while fending off Muslim invasions, but the project failed and tribal national states have succeeded the brief interlude of peace.
Check out every world civilizational area, as defined by Huntington. Eastern Slavs have warred against each other--and are still at it. Chinese states have warred against each other. Hindus and Buddhists have done the same. Muslims, too. Same in Western Christendom, but an argument can be made that two factors made things much worse in the sense of leading to Europe wide and even global wars: the dissolution of the civilizational unity and the resultant rise of nation states espousing the Man Made Order--as opposed to states within the unity of Christendom.
I'm not convinced that Christendom gave Europe a shared identity before the EU came along. European nations states have always hated each other and engaged in appallingly costly wars against each other. The EU will fall apart for the same reason that NATO and the USA will: they have always been, or are rapidly become, entities at odds with new, multipolar reality that grows stronger every day.
Who ever said a shared identity precludes conflict and mutual hatred? See, for example, human families.
And, I would add as counter-examples, the many times Europeans united against the common enemy of Islamic civilization. This dynamic even united Protestant, Catholic, and (almost) Orthodox Christians.
Too true. Additionally, a strong case could be made that Latin Christendom has always represented a project in progress, building on the remaining foundations of the Roman Empire in many respects. The task was to Christianize the barbarians tribal invasions from the 4th through the 11th centuries, while fending off Muslim invasions, but the project failed and tribal national states have succeeded the brief interlude of peace.
Check out every world civilizational area, as defined by Huntington. Eastern Slavs have warred against each other--and are still at it. Chinese states have warred against each other. Hindus and Buddhists have done the same. Muslims, too. Same in Western Christendom, but an argument can be made that two factors made things much worse in the sense of leading to Europe wide and even global wars: the dissolution of the civilizational unity and the resultant rise of nation states espousing the Man Made Order--as opposed to states within the unity of Christendom.