[pp.int.general] PPI platform for EU Election 2009

[Reinier Bakels]

Happy new year to you all!

>  From purely a vote-gathering perspective, I'm sure you could attract  a 
> certain kind of voter by associating with eurosceptics and  neonationalist 
> groups. But I'm also sure you'd scare away others just  the same.
>
> Of course, there are many other problems, both practical and  ideological, 
> with associating with such groups, which would mean at  least I think it's 
> unthinkable or at the very least a very bad idea to  do so.

You are completely right!

It should be noted that anti-European feelings are not always, or indeed 
mostly not associated with the "democratic deficit", but with some vague 
notion of loosing "national identity". Even in The Netherlands which was 
always very internationally oriented (as a trading nation, aware that it 
needed good international relations due to its small size) is now becoming 
increasibgly nationalistic. An explanation is that the aging, very 
prosperous population believes it can only loose if something changes. There 
is a political emphasis that children should learn NATIONAL history in 
school, and a NATIONAL history museum is being established.

In my perception, one should be aware of EUROPEAN history. During the 
campaign in NL for the "European Constitution", the goverment said that the 
EU is also a means to prevent wars (or something similar). The statement was 
badly phrased, as a threat ("if you vote against, you weill get war"), but 
in a historic perspective the EU indeed is a reaction to various conflicts 
and dictatorial regimes in the past century, from Hitler to Franco and from 
Honecker to Brezhnev.

In politics, there are always unusual combinations. For istance in The 
Netherlands, we have a progressive liberal party (D66) which is popular 
among lawyers and other intellectuals. They promote forms of more direct 
democracy like referenda, "in order to close the gap between the public and 
the government." Incidentally, similar proposals are made by far right 
populist groups (Verdonk, Wilders), who believe that the government is just 
a bunch of corrupt fools who only care for themselves and are totally out of 
touch with "ordinary people" (they claim to represent ordinary people - with 
statements reminding of the Nazi concept of "gesundes Volksempfinden" - the 
sound feelings of ordinary people).

Nationalism vs. internationalism is also a theme that crosses traditional 
political boundaries. In NL we do not have a threshold for the parliament 
(like the German 5%), so we have many political parties, with all kinds of 
interesting combinations. While the socialist movement hostorically always 
was interationally oriented, we now have a second socialist party (SP, 
somehow similar to the German "Linke") which tends to foster nationalism.

In my perception, "pirate" are intelletuals with naturally an international 
orientation.

reinier
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