FORGOTTEN LESSONS OF THE “OLD WORLD”

Exactly 80 years ago - on 30 January 1933 - Germany's President Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler Reichschancellor (head of government) to replace Kurt von Schleicher. This is a date that the whole world should remember, because this was the day that opened one of the darkest pages in the history of mankind. The coming to power of Nazism in Germany and the Second World War that followed cost the lives of some 65-100 million people, according to various estimates. Seventy-two states and 80% of the world's population took part in the war. Hostilities were fought in 40 countries. After the victory over Hitlerite Germany fascist and Nazi ideology was declared a crime at the Nuremburg trials and banned. It would seem that the shadow of fascism had passed, and mankind, drawing the lessons from this plague, must thwart all attempts at its revival. It was the peoples of Europe who suffered most from Nazism as a result of the Second World War. However, improbable as it may seem today, 80 years on, mankind is again faced with the onset of Nazism in Europe. Leading functionaries in the European Union have also warned about the approaching threat.

At first hand

Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, has said that the rhetoric of extreme right-wing parties is sowing enmity throughout the European Union and could have the most serious impact on the coming elections to the European Parliament, which have been fixed for 2014. The European commissioner made this statement at a conference on the prevention of and struggle against extremism. Malmstrom noted with alarm that derogatory remarks about gypsies, Muslims, Jews and immigrants are starting to be heard more and more frequently in Europe. In her opinion, many politicians are doing this to try to push the electorate towards the right. "Not since the Second World War have extremist and populist forces had such an influence in national parliaments as is happening now," the European commissioner said. She also warned that at the 2014 elections racist and nationalist-minded politicians will continue to strengthen their positions in the European Parliament as well.

"We should not underestimate how important this could be for the European project," Malmstrom said, pointing out that the political course of extreme right politicians could in the future inspire such "lone wolves" as Anders Breivik, who shot dead 77 people in Norway. The European commissioner noted that there could be more such lone terrorists and in time they could set off terrorist organizations. "The European Union should react to all forms of radicalism and extremism whatever their convictions may be - left, right or animal rights," Malmstrom believes. This statement by a leading European official confirms that the stagnation of democratic values and against this background the problem of a revival of ultra-right ideology in Europe have become a real threat, about which both international human-rights organizations and representatives of ethnic minorities in Europe have been speaking in recent years.

It is significant that Cecilia Malmstrom's statement roughly coincided timewise with the publication in Brussels of a report by the "For Human Rights" association entitled "The decline of Europe or a crisis of European values". The report of the organization, which is headed by the Azerbaijani human-rights activist Eynulla Fatullayev, refers to the situation in the sphere of violation of elementary human rights, particularly in relation to ethnic minorities, violation of the right of freedom of assembly and free speech. Problems of rejection of multiculturalism are also broadly considered.

A crisis of democracy

In a number of the developed countries problems in the functioning of democracy and policies of multiculturalism are causing alarm with regard to Europe's short-term political prospects and posing a threat to the very existence of the "common European home". Moreover, the apparent systemic crisis of European values serves as a restraining factor in the choice of path of the European democratic development of the marginal countries. This could apply not only to countries from Eurasia but also the Asia-Pacific region which have achieved good results in building a law-based state. This suppresses the possibilities for the steady advancement of democracy on a global scale. 

Amid the growing crisis, the values of the "common European home" and a "Europe without borders" are being forgotten, attitude towards migrants have hardened and there has been an escalation of inter-religious and inter-ethnic tension.

Heads of state have long been speaking officially about the collapse of the ideas of multiculturalism in Europe. For example, in October 2010, at a meeting with members of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany "have completely collapsed". "The concept whereby we now live side by side and are happy to do so is not working," she said. This statement was a reflection of common feelings in the crisis-ridden European Union, but it was given extra importance by the fact that it was made by the leader of a country whose politicians had always, especially in the second half of the 20th century, avoided pointed remarks about the representatives of other peoples. Merkel impressed with her plain speaking and by how willing the Germans, who have been so touchy in this respect since the Second World War, are to speak about their own ethnic culture. From the outset this statement was taken extremely seriously by many because of its possible social and geopolitical consequences. It was originally aimed at a broader interpretation: not only as German reaction to the problem of immigration, but also the reaction of Europe as a whole. And that's what it got.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and the then French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed with Merkel. This is what Cameron had to say about multiculturalism: "In Britain some young people have difficulty in identifying with traditional Islam as practised by their parents. But these young people have the same difficulty identifying with Britain. This happens because we have allowed our collective identity to weaken. We have failed to offer a vision of society, part of which they would like to be. We have even been tolerant to the same behaviour by separate communities, although it runs completely counter to our values."

Later Sarkozy supported the British leader's position: "My reply is undoubtedly - 'Yes'; multiculturalism has been a failure. We have been too concerned about the identity of the people coming here and insufficiently worried about the identity of the country receiving them. If you come to France you agree to become part of the national community, and if you don't want to accept that no-one here will welcome you. Our approach was multiculturalism in the sense that we will live together and value one another - this approach has failed, utterly failed."

The Dutch Prime Minister Maksime Verhagen, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland, the former prime ministers of Belgium and Australia, Yves Leterme and John Howard, and others came out with similar statements.

Whereas during the adoption of the policy of multiculturalism any manifestations of intolerance in Europe were methodically suppressed, the situation in recent years has radically altered. A triggering factor was the emergence of a book by Thilo Sarrazin: "Germany Abolishes Itself", which radically changed the situation.  The author of this new "theory of ethnic segregation" was not a representative of marginal ultra-right politics, but a striking member of the European beau monde and a social-democrat who until recently held solid jobs in Germany's hierarchy. This book laid bare previously hidden problems in society.

What Sarrazin preaches has been written about many times. He is convinced that a considerable number of Arab and Turkish immigrants are completely unprepared to and even have no wish to integrate into German society. "Integration is a task for those who integrate. I don't have to put up with anyone who doesn't do so. I don't have to put up at all with anyone who lives off the state, rejects this country, doesn't care about the education of his children and keeps on bringing little girls in dresses into the world." Moreover, he believes, German society is "becoming more stupid" because of the genetic data of these migrants. Doesn't this remind you of the "eugenics" of Goebbels or Hitler?

The consequences of the rejection of the policy of multiculturalism in the European countries were ideological attacks on "aliens" (the cartoon scandal, the ban on the hijab, the ban on minarets, and so on) and also physical violence (the murder of Turks and attempts to burn down mosques in Germany, the deportation of gypsies in Italy and France, the burning of people in Hungary, and so on).

Is history being repeated?

And so, in Europe political rhetoric is more and more being tuned to an authoritarian, non-democratic mode. Centre-right and, at first glance, neo-liberal political forces who in power are experiencing impotence in tackling economic problems, are more and more demonstrating nationalistic, at times even fascist populism in their aim to label the guilty and divert people's attention from their daily problems, at the same time grabbing votes from the ultra-right.

That was almost the very same approach of the political leaders of 80 years ago. At the time, European leaders, unable to resolve their economic problems and extricate themselves from the crisis of those times, sought an enemy from outside and flirted with ultra-nationalistic political forces. We recall what this led to. But do the European leaders who are so zealously criticising the policy of multiculturalism recall this?