Vivienne Walt’s article, How Nationalists Are Joining Together to Tear Europe Apart, highlights the dissatisfaction of some European countries (ECs) with the European Union (EU) and are seeking their exit from this union using their nationalists.
Walt points out that over the years countries have surrendered part of their governance to a faceless entity – the EU- that diffuses its authority in different institutions such as the Council of the EU and the European Commission. In Rompuy’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, ECs have benefitted from the EU in different ways including free movement of its people, formation of common policies, and frictionless trade among member states.
However, Walt depicts that the EU’s opaque system of parliamentary elections as well as limited support from member countries has created a loophole for nationalists in different ECs such as Hungary, Italy, Austria, and Sweden to come forth in recent years to call for their exit (Walt). The British exit from the EU, Brexit, is an example of the fight by nationalists to protect the rights of their countries which cracked open weakness in the EU. Based on Agnew’s argument on territorial nationalism, nationalists in the EU are seeking to steer people towards the sacred history of their lands to exercise their political will accordingly (Agnew 227). For this reason, nationalism is gaining a foothold in the EC to protect their political, social, and economic rights. For example, The EU has not equally addressed the refugee crisis leaving some countries to bear the burden of this social issue.
Moreover, the economic recession of countries such as Spain, Portugal, and Greece has led to a dependency on EU and IMF bailouts which are backed by states with strong economies such as Germany (Walt). As noted in Agnew’s article, nationalism is an autonomous force – a form of consciousness – found in the spirit of the people which supersedes any political ideology (Agnew 224). Nationalism in the EU is slowly gaining traction as people in ECs are coming to the realization that a single entity, actively participated by a few, can protect their rights.
Works Cited
Agnew, John. “Nationalism.” Web.
Walt, Vivienne. “How Nationalists Are Joining Together to Tear Europe Apart.” Time, Web.