The European Project: the future of the EU.

Some people really hate the far right. Them being populists is not the question.
 
The tendency is in fact to label extreme right as populist. Extreme left too.
 

Cyberattack definitively ruled out by Spanish government. The blackout was caused by three large solar plants (2.2 gigawatts total) that failed almost simultaneously in southern Spain within 20 seconds. The reason for the simultaneous failure of all three is still unknown. Apparently that morning there were oscilations in frequency and power at continental level but It could have been pure coincidence too.
 
There is probably a question of semantics and translation here.

For myself I don't regard parties that operate within the law as extreme.

Yet many such are libeled and slandered as extreme.

I see that as an attempt to discredit those not content with the status quo consensus.

Anyway we will see what happens with the elections in Poland, Portugal and Romania this Sunday.
 
EnglishEdward said:
There seems to be a tendency to label populists as far right so that people will hate them.
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A tendency that is not working.
The ones that hate the "far" right are the so called "elites" and college "enlightened minds".
Average Joe has started, some time ago fortunately, to not give a fudge about what these Übermensch think about their choices/aspirations when it comes to vote. They may give the required lip service for fear of shaming and cancellation, but when you are on that closed cabinet you are free to put the cross wherever you want and its great! I wasn't smart enough to hide my voting orientation from my peers and for that I've been called a number of nasty things which are not true, it's sad but I can deal with it.
EU voting is a clear sign of F the "enlightened" Übermensch. 18 May in Portugal will, again, reflect this trend.
 
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But the truth is that “pro-Europe” and “anti-Europe” are just labels. They disguise the fact that what Romanians are really rejecting is a domestic political class that has wrapped itself in the EU flag while overseeing years of economic stagnation, corruption and broken promises. After all, nearly 90% of Romanians support EU and Nato alignment, according to a survey from this year.
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This is what we saw earlier in the UK too, incompetent domestic politicians translated into anti-EU sentiment among the electorate.

This time with a twist :

The Romanian diaspora accounted for about 10% of the total votes in the first round. And more than half of them backed Simion. These are Romanians who live and work in countries such as Spain, Germany, the UK and France, directly benefiting from the freedoms and economic stability provided by the EU.
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This is because his targets are successive pro-European Romanian governments, dominated by the establishment parties, which promised prosperity but presided over the embezzlement of infrastructure funds, failed to modernise hospitals and delayed highway projects that Romanians had long been promised – all while EU money poured in.
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Except in this Romanian case, there are actual external state actors (one in particular) harnessing dissatisfaction to direct it according to their agenda.

Last time they had an election something like 20 million social media accounts spawned to blanket the digital information space with support for the candidate preferred by said external state actors interests.

This time the dude seemingly in the lead actually has a court ruling against him that directly ties him to similar external state actor security services, go figure...

You kind of give the populists the benefit of the doubt her at own peril, At least if you are Romanian. Even if local politicians have made a pig's ear of things, and people are pissed., whether they blame the EU or not – that's still not all that is going on and relevant to the situation.
 
Well every malcontent in Europe is to some degree harnessed by "external actors", think of the "foment unrest" mission in a civ game :)

As this study documented, there is no shortage of external challenges to the EU’s position in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. From the Russian military aggression against Ukraine, which is justified in the name of the struggle against the “Collective West,” to the Chinese companies acquiring stakes in regional infrastructural projects and key industries, Türkiye’s outreach to kin communities and offers of an alternative to the EU membership and the U.S.’ assertive unilateral diplomatic initiatives, the competition with the EU and contestation of its vision of regional order have taken multiple forms.
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re-engaging.eu

External actors’ engagement in the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe

This study analyses the main interests and modes of engagement of the dominant EU’s actual and potential competitors and other external actors in the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe.
re-engaging.eu re-engaging.eu

Apart from the open war in Ukraine, the Russian goals translate into political and information support for separatist and nationalist forces as well as conservative and anti- Western political parties and movements. As such, Russia even actively targets the broader sense of trust and belonging in the countries it perceives as hostile or where it has a stronger political interest.
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EU states Portugal, Romania and Poland all had elections this weekend, and a lot of anti-establishment sentiment was on show; Romania was billed as being the most important of the three given all the controversy around annulling the previous presidential election results. However the far-right candidate for president has lost to the more central candidate this time. Poland is to go to another runoff.
 
In Portugal I foresee a central block alignment to keep Chega barred from influencing governance.
But if the winner and ongoing government (Social Democratic Party alliance) and their (new) crutches keep looking the other way regarding Chega's flags I foresee Conservative Right will, eventually, rise enough to win elections. Chega will probably (only 4 mps from the diaspora remain to be elected) end the 2025 parliamentary elections as the 2nd party with most mps, right now it's neck to neck with 58 mps each with the Social Party (PS).
 
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EnglishEdward said:
What measures ?
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Actually responding to the main underlying complaints from people is the best way to deal with populists.
Populism rise when such complaints are ignored for too long, they are a symptom not a cause. But the mainstream parties seem to be stuck on demonizing the opposition while ignoring the root problems, and then ending up Pikachu-face when the bad guys still get votes.
 
A, somewhat, accurate reading by Reuters of Portugal's election results:

Portugal's ruling centre-right alliance wins election, but far-right makes record gains​

  • Ruling centre-right party wins most seats, short of majority
  • Portugal holds 3rd election in 3 years
  • Anti-immigration Chega party could form opposition
MADRID, May 19 (Reuters) - Portugal's ruling centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) won a snap parliamentary election on Sunday but again fell short of the majority needed to end a long period of instability as the far-right Chega gained a record share of the vote.
Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said the election result was a vote of confidence in his party, but with votes from abroad still to be counted Chega could supplant the centre-left Socialists as the main opposition party, ending almost 40 years of dominance by the country's two major parties.

Continued political instability could delay structural reforms and major projects in Portugal, including lithium mining in the north, and potentially compromise the efficient deployment of EU funds and the long-delayed privatization of TAP airline.
The election, the third in as many years, was called one year into an AD minority government's term after Montenegro failed to win a vote of confidence in March when the opposition questioned his integrity over dealings of his family's consultancy firm. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Electoral data showed the AD making gains, winning 89 seats in the 230-seat parliament, nine more than in the previous election.

Montenegro, who has ruled out any deal with Chega, said he expected to form a minority government.
"The Portuguese don't want any more snap elections, they want a four-year legislature," Montenegro said as his supporters chanted "Let Luis work," his campaign slogan.
Chega gained 8 seats for a total of 58, winning a record 22.6% of the vote, while voters appeared to punish the Socialists for their role in bringing down Montenegro's government.
They fell to 58 seats from 78, prompting Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos to say he would step down.
Chega leader Andre Ventura, who was hospitalised during the campaign after collapsing on stage with an esophageal spasm, said his party had "swept the left block off the map in style."
"There are moments in life during which God says, just stop a little bit," he told a crowd of jubilant supporters. "This time I am not going to listen. I am not going to stop until I become the prime minister of Portugal.”
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Akka said:
Actually responding to the main underlying complaints from people is the best way to deal with populists.
Populism rise when such complaints are ignored for too long, they are a symptom not a cause. But the mainstream parties seem to be stuck on demonizing the opposition while ignoring the root problems, and then ending up Pikachu-face when the bad guys still get votes.
Click to expand...

If it were that easy, it would already have been done. So why is populism rising simultaneously across the globe? Have all politicians, left, center, right in every country, suddenly become incompetent all at the exact same time?

I don't think the real change is in politicians behaviour, but in the environment in which politics now takes place. Social media has reshaped our perception of reality, the way we form our opinions and therefore how influence is gained. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Jordan Bardella in France, they are the products of the social media era. They represent governments of social media, by social media and for social media. What you see as incompetence or hypocrisy in traditional parties is often a way to do politics that no longer fits to our social media world. Also "mainstream" is getting misleading as populists have 5 times more visibility than traditional parties nowadays.

People live increasingly in their own echo chambers in which their beliefs are unchallenged, weakening our ability to put things in perspective. And unfortunately, the AI won't help considering how sycophant they are. ChatGPT always tell me I'm "brilliant", that my solutions are "so smart". Even when I make mistakes, it will never tell me that I'm wrong, it will answer something like "yeah you're totally right, but what do you think of that suggestion, it's optional" (whereas that "suggestion" is actually the correct way to do it).

We, as a society, are not yet mature enough to navigate smartly that new reality. More than ever we should remember the Crow and the Fox from Jean de La Fontaine:
"Know that every flatterer​
Lives at the expense of those who listen to him."​

Populism thrives in a world built on confirmation bias and flattery. The problem isn't just what the people want, it's what we’ve all been conditioned to reward.
 
Roughly one and a half centuries ago, Nietzche argued philosophically that while it should have been obvious to anyone that being against a position itself implies dependence on the position, it is not. Nice to see that the problem remains that people neither read nor think, and thus one doesn't even need to imagine the ape who tries to prove angle difference by arguing it is in the left/right/center.
As for France... Baudelaire once wrote that "in the future, youths will dream not of filling an attic with their thoughts, but of how to make a million francs". Certainly the current Eu would make him vomit uncontrollably ^^
 
Marla_Singer said:
If it were that easy, it would already have been done.
Click to expand...
Of course it isn't easy, but it's not mysterious.
So why is populism rising simultaneously across the globe? Have all politicians, left, center, right in every country, suddenly become incompetent all at the exact same time?
Click to expand...
Populism is nothing new, it has existed for as long as society has existed. The very word "demagogue" dates back to Ancient Athens, which already had to build countermeasure
The synchronicity we see in the modern world is simply due to the global nature of today's society, with idea currents able to be communicated instantaneously on a worldwide scale and also worldwide-scale systems affecting people along the same lines on the whole planet.
Basically, like you said, the environment in which politics take place. But in this environment, I include said worldwide system, which is causing frictions and which political elites are unable or unwilling to change (and I agree, it's no easy task, as the whole world economy runs on it). Populists have the easy task to whine about said system being left unchecked (and, when elected, they tend to just profiteer on it rather than do what they claimed, as befit for populists), but it's still the root cause that make people vote for them.
 
Kyriakos said:
Roughly one and a half centuries ago, Nietzche argued philosophically that while it should have been obvious to anyone that being against a position itself implies dependence on the position, it is not. Nice to see that the problem remains that people neither read nor think, and thus one doesn't even need to imagine the ape who tries to prove angle difference by arguing it is in the left/right/center.
As for France... Baudelaire once wrote that "in the future, youths will dream not of filling an attic with their thoughts, but of how to make a million francs". Certainly the current Eu would make him vomit uncontrollably ^^
Click to expand...

I could reflect Nietzsche’s critique back onto your post as well, as you also define your position by opposition rather than construction. You're right that discarding social media is futile. It is our new reality, and that won’t change. When the printing press was invented, it unleashed expression and censorship didn't prevent it to spread under the hood, because people fundamentally want to understand. The human brain is a problem-solving machine, but its defect is that when it fails to make sense of something, it sends it to the trashbin and forget about it. That's what we should fight against but it's hard, I struggle with it too.

Politicians must engage with people, and social media is now the main arena where that happens. Ignoring it isn't the solution, this should be accepted and we should adapt accordingly, but we're not mature enough to avoid its traps. We increasingly discard efforts to build a society that works for everyone, considering it prevents us from moving forward. We promote instead models where majorities impose their will on minorities. Despite historical precedents, we won't realize the unfortunate consequences untill experiencing them ourselves.

Regarding the EU, yes definitely, its pro-globalism eventually hit us back hard in return. Europe is now in a very precarious position, no doubt. Yet, returning to Nieztsche's point about reactive thinking, it's not because the EU failed that it makes rejecting the entire European project inherently valid.
 
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