European Parliament

In the end, this European election didn’t quite turn out to be the disruption that Steve Bannon, Yaxley-Lennon, Salvini and the likes promised it to be. Nevertheless, it is a defeat.

It is a defeat for the political centre, a defeat for the political and economic establishment, neoliberalism, austerity, technocracy, a defeat for the Troika and those elites whose inane handling of economic crises intentionally or unintentionally enabled the rise of fascism.

But before we talk of hope, let me say this: Let us not indulge in window-dressing. Any victory for the far-right, every increase in their vote share in any election is a loss for humanity. When fascism rises there are only losers. Our incapability to oppose them effectively, to capture the hearts of voters to decide differently at the polling stations, to vote for open borders, for internationalism, pluralism, love not hate — this is our failure. When we talk of hope, we need to talk about it before this backdrop.

Here is what should give us hope: The last few days, weeks and months leading up to the European election.

The world is at a cross-road. The challenges we face today are of a scale never seen in human history. Rising sea-levels, global warming, the displacement of hundreds of millions by climate disaster is what should be keeping us awake at night. Even though these elections have witnessed a rise in popularity of those who deny the impeding doom, we also know that there is a new popular consciousness on the horizon. A new generation marches in the street.

These — mostly young — people are aware of the challenges we’re facing. They, we, call for radical action, because we know that only if we break with the old ways in which we treat our planet, our environment and each other, only then do we stand a chance to save what there is left to save in a dying world.

We have been walking in the streets, not in the hundreds, not in the thousands, not in the hundred thousand. But in the millions. Extinction rebellion and the Fridays for Future protests have done something that is not and cannot be reflected in voter turn-out, vote shares, voting trends. They do the impossible in a world faced with the double threat of climate disaster and fascism. They give hope.

What many of us who march and protest against our governments active complicity in facilitating the destruction of our common future do not yet realize is of an even greater historic scale: This election, the months which led up to it and the years that will follow are a moment in history with the potential to destroy life as we know it on this Earth, we call our home; or to create.

If fascism continues to rise, border fences keeping climate refugees outside of Europe will grow higher, endless rows of barbed wire will become ever longer and the source of all this suffering - capitalist production and consumption patterns - will be obscured, lied about. The climate disaster is real, our brothers and sisters in the Global South know this better than we do. Our ways in which we treat this planet are the problem. We are part of the problem. We know that too.

I feel hope that we can rise to the challenge. Our discontent with our established politicians and with ourselves is the fuel that will accelerate our fight against climate disaster and for a just society. I feel hope that we can create something new. The new popular consciousness that has now only begun to emerge will continue to sweep through newspaper editorials, academic journals and political offices.

For the first time in a very long time we are faced with a problem of such scale that we question the old ways in which we used to response to challenges. We’ve had enough of calling on innovators and new gadgets to save us. Growth cannot be endless, perhaps we have reached its end already.

Instead we turn inward and question the very fundamental principles and ideology on which our societies are build. We question the desire to consume to endlessly grow our economy we look for new answers. I feel hope that we are capable of realizing this historic potential and change the world to the better. Our task is to channel the forces of history onto a path that will benefit all. There is hope.