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Snyder: Ukraine as antidote to Europe's fascism
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/may/27/ukraine-antidote-europes-fascists/The first three paragraphs (bold highlights are my emphasis)
Europe has a problem, and Ukraine might be the solution.
In the elections that took place across Europe on Sunday for the European Parliament, turnout was low (43 percent), and the anti-European far right made substantial gains, most notably in France, where the National Front took 25 percent. In the election that took place the same day for the Ukrainian presidency, turnout was high (61 percent), the victorious candidate ran on a pro-EU platform, and the far-right candidates (2 percent) were beaten by everyone, including the Jewish candidate. If Europeans voted the way Ukrainians did, Europe could count on a far more secure and prosperous future.
One reason for this debacle is the alternative reality where many Europeans have been living in 2014. On the European left, especially the German left (in particular the party Die Linke), criticism of the purported fascism of the post-revolutionary government in Ukraine has been de rigeur. No amount of information and argumentation was able to change this fixation. It can only be hoped that these electoral results—which bring to the European Parliament a Greek party that is openly neo-Nazi and a Hungarian party that is unambiguously anti-Semitic—will open some eyes. The European left has a real problem, and it is not the Ukrainian far right. It is the European far right, which happens to be popular, and is supported by the Russian far right, which happens to be in power in Moscow.
Meanwhile, the fantasy on offer from the European far right this year has been the nation-state. If only Scotland, or England, or France, or Austria, or Greece, or Bulgaria could finally be free of pushy European bureaucrats, then life would return to normal and all would be well. All would not be well. It is natural to complain about distant bureaucrats who do not understand the local realities. But it is another thing entirely to mistake the normal frustrations of any large polity for a program. The nation-state is a utopia. There is no way back to it. Europeans who believe that disintegration is a good idea should consult the history of the 1920s and 1930s. Or ask Ukrainians confronting a Russian annexation of Crimea and Russian-backed aggression in their southeastern provinces.
In the elections that took place across Europe on Sunday for the European Parliament, turnout was low (43 percent), and the anti-European far right made substantial gains, most notably in France, where the National Front took 25 percent. In the election that took place the same day for the Ukrainian presidency, turnout was high (61 percent), the victorious candidate ran on a pro-EU platform, and the far-right candidates (2 percent) were beaten by everyone, including the Jewish candidate. If Europeans voted the way Ukrainians did, Europe could count on a far more secure and prosperous future.
One reason for this debacle is the alternative reality where many Europeans have been living in 2014. On the European left, especially the German left (in particular the party Die Linke), criticism of the purported fascism of the post-revolutionary government in Ukraine has been de rigeur. No amount of information and argumentation was able to change this fixation. It can only be hoped that these electoral results—which bring to the European Parliament a Greek party that is openly neo-Nazi and a Hungarian party that is unambiguously anti-Semitic—will open some eyes. The European left has a real problem, and it is not the Ukrainian far right. It is the European far right, which happens to be popular, and is supported by the Russian far right, which happens to be in power in Moscow.
Meanwhile, the fantasy on offer from the European far right this year has been the nation-state. If only Scotland, or England, or France, or Austria, or Greece, or Bulgaria could finally be free of pushy European bureaucrats, then life would return to normal and all would be well. All would not be well. It is natural to complain about distant bureaucrats who do not understand the local realities. But it is another thing entirely to mistake the normal frustrations of any large polity for a program. The nation-state is a utopia. There is no way back to it. Europeans who believe that disintegration is a good idea should consult the history of the 1920s and 1930s. Or ask Ukrainians confronting a Russian annexation of Crimea and Russian-backed aggression in their southeastern provinces.
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