How I wish there was a national political figure like Pat Buchanan of yore.
Buchanan’s recent column is about the rise of nationalist parties in Western Europe (“Swiss Vote A Fire Bell In The Night For The EU—And Globalism”).
In a referendum backed by the Swiss People’s Party, a clear majority voted to impose quotas on all immigration, even from other European nations…
The Swiss vote was not just a shocker for the champions of “one Europe.” It has given a tremendous boost to the populist parties on the continent. Hailing the Swiss vote, many are demanding similar referendums in their own countries.
Nigel Farage, head of the U.K. Independence Party, which wants a referendum to quit the EU entirely and is pressuring the Tories of David Cameron, hailed the referendum.
Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Front, is praising the “great courage” of the Swiss and has launched a petition drive to put a referendum on the ballot in France.
“Similar calls have come from the Dutch Freedom party leader Geert Wilders, who is ahead in several recent polls; the Austrian Freedom party, which showed strong gains in September’s national elections; the Danish People’s party … and Sweden’s Democratic party,” writes the Financial Times.
In Norway, the Progress Party, which is part of the government, is demanding a referendum on immigration.
What makes the Swiss vote explosive is that it comes three months before the May elections for the European Parliament, in which anti-EU parties were already expected to make strong gains.
If these Euroskeptic parties can fold into their campaigns for the European Parliament their campaigns for a national vote to restrict immigration, they could make dramatic gains, and send a shock wave across Europe and a message to the world that Europeans are rejecting the future being planned for them…
Virtually every nation in Europe now has one party dedicated to halting immigration or leaving the EU…
But about almost all of these parties, certain statements are valid. They have all been gaining strength at the expense of older center-right parties. They are all detested by the Davos elite. They all draw their growing strength from the working and middle class.
Collectively, they lack the power to break up the EU. But their strength is such that the EU may not be able to hold a referendum on any change in its constitution without risk of having it voted down by a half-dozen member countries.
Can the European Union, so divided, continue to stand?
What propels these parties?
First, there is the desire in each country involved to retain its own ethnic, cultural and national identity and to halt immigration that would alter its character, especially from the Islamic world and the Third World…
What has all this to do with us?
The ethnonationalism roiling Europe is not unique to Europe. It is roiling the world. And it is not absent from the hearts of Americans.
If the May elections for the European Parliament turn into a sweeping rejection of the EU, what is happening there will find an echo here.
How would Americans vote on a timeout on all immigration? How would Americans vote, if given a chance, to repudiate our entire political elite?
