This week, Nick Clegg will use his new year's message to launch an "aggressive" defence of the EU, in a direct challenge to the rise of Ukip. Clegg will pitch the Liberal Democrats as the only party "fully committed" to Britain remaining in Europe. Some critics believe his strategy may see the Lib Dems fall into fifth place behind the Greens and Ukip at May's European parliament elections.
Across the continent, a pro-Europe stance is becoming increasingly unpopular. In October, the Italian prime minister, Enrico Letta, warned that while the agendas of populist movements may differ – some left, some right, a few fascist – they have common elements: "They are all anti-euro and all anti-Europe." In the last Italian elections, more than eight million people supported the populist Five Star Movement.'
In France, unemployment, austerity and euro crisis bailout fatigue means Marine Le Pen, head of the rightwing National Front, is predicted, like Ukip, to win the most in the May election. A 2011 New York Times profile of Le Pen called her a "kinder, gentler extremist". The woman who likened the French having to "endure" Muslims praying in French streets to life under the Nazi occupation has repositioned her party as a defender of gays, Jews and women, and economically to the left. Le Pen plans to work with the Sweden Democrats, Geert Wilders's Freedom party in the Netherlands and Flemish independence party Vlaams Belang in Belgium to create an anti-EU bloc in the parliament "to liberate Europe from the monster of Brussels". It's a proposal that Nigel Farage has rejected.
The pan-European political establishment in May is likely to receive a well-deserved kick up the backside for what is rightly perceived as EU elitism, arrogance and a dismissiveness towards ordinary voters. Populist politics, personified in Farage's approach, coheres around "us" – the people – v "them" – an unrepresentative coterie of politicians, technocrats and bureaucrats. Populism is imbued with memories of a mythical golden past – often a more mono-cultural, mono-racial one – and so this populism is fuelled by a belief in an enemy who is "the other". This is often directed at Muslims, though more recently at Roma and eastern Europeans.
As Professor Paul Taggart, of the University of Sussex, has pointed out, populism has proved enormously successful in reshaping the mainstream political discourse, influencing policies and closing down a debate informed by empirical evidence rather than emotional heat. "The 'danger' of populism," he writes, "is that … it works within existing politics while having the effect of changing the behaviour of other actors … it further feeds distrust in the complexity of politics."
This is dangerous territory for democracy. In this case, the phrase "other actors" includes David Cameron. His political pivot in the past year is designed to see off the electoral threat of Ukip. A more courageous approach would be to demolish Ukip's wafer-thin policies and prejudices.
Read more: Beware this populism sweeping across Europe | Observer editorial | Comment is free | The Observer
Across the continent, a pro-Europe stance is becoming increasingly unpopular. In October, the Italian prime minister, Enrico Letta, warned that while the agendas of populist movements may differ – some left, some right, a few fascist – they have common elements: "They are all anti-euro and all anti-Europe." In the last Italian elections, more than eight million people supported the populist Five Star Movement.'
In France, unemployment, austerity and euro crisis bailout fatigue means Marine Le Pen, head of the rightwing National Front, is predicted, like Ukip, to win the most in the May election. A 2011 New York Times profile of Le Pen called her a "kinder, gentler extremist". The woman who likened the French having to "endure" Muslims praying in French streets to life under the Nazi occupation has repositioned her party as a defender of gays, Jews and women, and economically to the left. Le Pen plans to work with the Sweden Democrats, Geert Wilders's Freedom party in the Netherlands and Flemish independence party Vlaams Belang in Belgium to create an anti-EU bloc in the parliament "to liberate Europe from the monster of Brussels". It's a proposal that Nigel Farage has rejected.
The pan-European political establishment in May is likely to receive a well-deserved kick up the backside for what is rightly perceived as EU elitism, arrogance and a dismissiveness towards ordinary voters. Populist politics, personified in Farage's approach, coheres around "us" – the people – v "them" – an unrepresentative coterie of politicians, technocrats and bureaucrats. Populism is imbued with memories of a mythical golden past – often a more mono-cultural, mono-racial one – and so this populism is fuelled by a belief in an enemy who is "the other". This is often directed at Muslims, though more recently at Roma and eastern Europeans.
As Professor Paul Taggart, of the University of Sussex, has pointed out, populism has proved enormously successful in reshaping the mainstream political discourse, influencing policies and closing down a debate informed by empirical evidence rather than emotional heat. "The 'danger' of populism," he writes, "is that … it works within existing politics while having the effect of changing the behaviour of other actors … it further feeds distrust in the complexity of politics."
This is dangerous territory for democracy. In this case, the phrase "other actors" includes David Cameron. His political pivot in the past year is designed to see off the electoral threat of Ukip. A more courageous approach would be to demolish Ukip's wafer-thin policies and prejudices.
Read more: Beware this populism sweeping across Europe | Observer editorial | Comment is free | The Observer
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