Making Europe weak again: the danger of confusing patriotism with nationalism

I'm reading more and more messages from the conservative movement that are heading in directions I can't agree with.

Antiglobalism, a way to distort conservative discourse to the Kremlin's liking
Patriots advocating surrender: a great success for the enemies of the West

A speech that forgets our recent history

I read the latest of these this afternoon. It's an editorial in The European Conservative, a website I've been following with great interest for some time. In it, Mick Hume, the editor-in-chief of the aforementioned website, speaks of the "the overdue end of the old world order." Referring to Trump and Vance's ambush of Zelensky in the White House, Hume adds:

"In tearing up the accepted etiquette of diplomacy on live TV, President Trump also signalled to allies and enemies alike that the established rules and conventions of international relations no longer apply. The question is now, what comes next?

For 35 years since the end of the Cold War, we have been assured by Western experts and political elites that the globalist world order had brought the end of history, the end of major international conflicts, and the end of the importance of national sovereignty."

This analysis overlooks the fact that in the 1990s, Europe was ravaged by wars in the former Yugoslavia, in which atrocities were committed that had not been seen on this continent since World War II precisely because of nationalist fanaticism. Beyond Europe, the Middle East has periodically been ravaged by attempts to destroy the State of Israel, while several African countries have suffered terrible civil wars. Even today, there are serious armed conflicts in Ethiopia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and several countries in the Sahel, due to Islamist terrorism.

The confusion between 'anti-globalist' dogmas and reality

After criticizing international organizations such as the UN, the IMF, the WHO, and the EU, Hume adds: "Over the past decade, however, we have witnessed a growing gap between globalist claims and the real world. The old U.S.-led unipolar order has been challenged by the emergence of regional blocs with the rise of China, India, and Russia." Hume also notes the following:

"There has been an upsurge of insurrectionary national populist parties across Europe and around the globe, a revolt against the globalist elites as people demand that their interests are represented and their voices heard. Trump’s shouting match with Zelensky sounded the death knell for a world order that has been dying on its feet anyway."

It is a paradox to speak of a "growing gap between globalist claims and the real world" and then to expose a clear confusion between "antiglobalist" dogmas and reality. Today, conservative parties only govern in three European countries: Italy, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Of those three governments, only one, the Hungarian one, subscribes to positions like those Hume sets forth. The Italian and Czech governments are reformists, not anti-system.

Once again, the speeches that attribute a single thought to 'the people'

If recent experience has taught me anything, it's that we must be wary of speeches that cite "the people" as the subject of their arguments. This is the kind of discourse we've heard for years from far-left parties like Podemos, and now we're also hearing it on the other side of the political spectrum. "The people" have very diverse ideas, which are reflected in political pluralism and in the results of the democratic elections held in different countries. This diversity of opinions is the hallmark of a democracy.

A 'national populist revolt' with Trump as its leader

Finally, Hume states this:

"Europe’s real hope still lies in the people, many of whom have shown that they have had enough of seeing their traditions and way of life rubbished by rulers who occupy another world. Our job now is to do all we can to advance the national populist revolt."

Hume makes it clear at the end who his reference point for this "revolt" is: Donald Trump. Something that I find very curious, since in recent weeks and as everyone has been able to see, Trump has ignored the national sovereignty of Ukraine and has belittled the patriotism of its defenders, accusing that country of the Russian invasion and pressuring it to give in to the dictator Vladimir Putin.

I have been denouncing the excesses of the UN and the EU for many years, and I will continue to do so, not out of any misgiving about the existence of international organizations, but because, as a liberal-conservative, I distrust all politicians and believe that limits should be placed on power, whoever wields it and no matter how well-intentioned they claim to be. This includes nationalists.

The words of Saint John Paul II on patriotism and nationalism

At this point, I would like to recall the words spoken by Pope Saint John Paul II at the UN on 5 October 1995, pointing out the differences between patriotism and nationalism:

"True patriotism never seeks to advance the well-being of one's own nation at the expense of others. For in the end this would harm one's own nation as well: doing wrong damages both aggressor and victim. Nationalism, particularly in its most radical forms, is thus the antithesis of true patriotism, and today we must ensure that extreme nationalism does not continue to give rise to new forms of the aberrations of totalitarianism.·

Nationalism had already promised to end Europe's decline... and it almost ended Europe.

In the last century, nationalism was the cause of two world wars with millions of deaths. In the second, that nationalism took the form of a patriotic socialism that criticized a decadent Europe, which it identified with liberalism and democracy. Hitler's alternative turned out to be much worse than what the Nazis criticized, showing the world how extreme nationalist fanaticism, in this case mixed with antisemitism, can go.

I say this because behind some "anti-globalist" messages I'm beginning to see a very similar process, bridging the enormous gap between those speeches and Nazi crimes. Once again, a populist discourse is being raised against a decadent Europe to which all evils are attributed, in a reading whose simplicity clashes with the complexity of the world we live in. Like a magic wand, a nationalism is shown that Hume links to an approach that he explains with the following words: "an era when nation-states will need to look to their own sovereignty and defence."

The alternative to a decadent Europe cannot be the law of the strongest

God forbid we return to such an era, because Europe has already been through it: the era of the law of the strongest, the era in which bullies imposed their will by force, an era in which countries like Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia lost their independence to the Nazis and communists. This "national populism" will not bring about a great Europe again, as some claim, but a more divided and therefore weaker Europe, that is, one that is more defenseless against bullies like Vladimir Putin, who is one of the great role models for many who call themselves "antiglobalists".

If international organizations don't function well, they must be reformed, just as if there's a problem in a country, it can't be fixed by dissolving it. Speeches announcing a "new era" in which serious and complex problems will be magically solved with simple solutions are nothing more than a deception, just as socialism isn't. A deception that, by the way, has little to do with the common sense and realism of conservative discourse, and is closer to the ramblings and demagoguery of fascist utopianism, just as dangerous as communist utopianism. Knowing our history, we Europeans should be wary of such discourse, but as has been seen recently, also with the resurgence of anti-Semitism, it seems we have forgotten our history and are risking repeating it.

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Image: AlphaSystem.