A New Hope

From the ashes of the EU arises an alternative vision for the future of the continent

“The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.” So begins Charlie Chaplin’s soaring speech in The Great Dictator, a must-see if you have not already had the pleasure. Speaking in 1940 against fascism, Chaplin’s words, most regrettably, ring as true today as they did in his own time. How has this happened?

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the west promised justice, liberty, and prosperity in order to defeat communism. Since communism’s failure, however, we have seen throughout the world a slow retreat of these ideals towards authoritarianism, which, in comparison to democracy, better serves the interests of the socioeconomic elite. This is the global context that has shaped the emergence and evolution of the EU over the past several decades. The origins of the failure of the EU have their roots in the body’s conception and formation, but, focusing on more recent history, it is clear that the EU was seriously wounded by the unresolved Greek debt crisis. European citizens came to the startling realisation that bonds and bureaucracy, not just bullets, could destroy systematically the prosperity of a member nation and subvert the will of its People. Then, out of the blue, Brexit delivered a body blow that left Brussels more bloodied than bruised. In the present moment, failure to act in Cataluyna has cost the EU whatever iota of legitimacy it had left in the eyes of democrats around the world. Like the hare in the headlights, EU leaders, for want of a better word, are paralysed in suicidal bewilderment as the fascist Spanish government prepares the most blatant attack on natural rights seen in a western country in living memory.

This is the world we are living in, one in which it is necessary to link the definition of natural rights when using the term, so that the loud and violent stampede of authoritarians may understand (or, more likely, ignore) the ideals that are at stake. A world where ignorance of the first principles of ethics pervades every strata of society, to the point where Theresa May mindlessly repeats Spain’s unconscionable position that the law has primacy over justice, despite the former being a derivative of the latter. A world where the BBC does not think twice before giving a platform to the Spanish Foreign Minister so that he can lie through his teeth, practically unchallenged, claiming that police violence in Catalunya is fake news, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. A world in which Angela Merkel sacrifices Germany’s dignity and special duty to combat fascism because the status quo enriches the average Steuerzahler, and where French fears over the future makeup of their fatherland, or perhaps concern for the steady supply of Brussels-based jobs for SciencesPo graduates, keeps Emmanuel Macron missing in inaction.

Just as some members of the Democratic Party of the United States are making valiant attempts to reform their deeply corrupt party, so too are Europeans who, firm in their commitment to seeing democracy, prosperity, and peace flourish on the continent, believe a better EU is possible. DiEM25, led by Yanis Varoufakis, is such an attempt. The movement’s manifesto lays out the core of the argument against the current iteration of the EU,

For all their concerns with global competitiveness, migration and terrorism, only one prospect truly terrifies the Powers of Europe: Democracy! They speak in democracy’s name but only to deny, exorcise and suppress it in practice… …At the Heart of our disintegrating EU there lies a guilty deceit: a highly political, top-down, opaque decision-making process is presented as ‘apolitical’, ‘technical’, ‘procedural’ and ‘neutral’. Its purpose is to prevent Europeans from exercising democratic control over their money, communities, working conditions and environment.

The DiEM25 manifesto argues that, “Two dreadful options dominate: retreat into the cocoon of our nation-states, or surrender to the Brussels democracy-free zone. There must be another course. And there is! It is the one official Europe resists with every sinew of its authoritarian mind-set: a surge of democracy!”

The manifesto continues, laying out the movement’s priorities as follows,

Our immediate priority is (A) full transparency in decision-making (e.g. live-streaming of European Council, Ecofin and Eurogroup meetings, full disclosure of trade negotiation docusments, publication of ECB minutes etc.) and (B) the urgent redeployment of existing EU institutions in the pursuit of innovative policies that genuinely address the crises of debt, banking, inadequate investment, rising poverty and migration. Our medium-term goal, once Europe’s various crises have been stabilised, is to convene a constitutional assembly where Europeans will deliberate on how to bring forth, by 2025, a full-fledged European democracy, featuring a sovereign Parliament that respects national self-determination and sharing power with national Parliaments, regional assemblies and municipal councils.

The truth is that the forces against democracy are powerful, entrenched, and unrelenting. Just as progressive Americans plan for a future without the Democratic Party, while simultaneously seeking and hoping for its reform, the movement for democracy in Europe must learn to chew gum and walk at the same time. DiEM25’s success is not inevitable, so we cannot limit our efforts simply to recapturing the EU from bureaucracy, protectionism, and monopoly using the existing framework. We must also pursue different means to the same end of democratising Europe, so that our strategy becomes multi-pronged, thus opening up multiple avenues to victory, and providing a more complex resistance for the powers that be to counter. Although there is indeed a third option that avoids retreating into the cocoon of our nation-states, or surrendering to the Brussels democracy-free zone, there are a number of ways in which a surge in democracy might manifest itself.