The anti-European, anti-immigration and anti-diversity parties have made huge gains in the European elections which some call a “political earthquake”. In the UK the Eurosceptic party’s victory marked the first time in modern history that neither the Labour party nor the Conservatives have won a British national election. UKIP won almost 28% of the national poll nearly doubling the 16.5% in 2009. Twenty years ago, in its first European election, it managed 1% of the vote.
This success can be attributed to two factors: Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader (and pretty much one man band) was given unprecedented coverage by the media, in fact completely out of proportion in relation to other parties and the real relevance it had had till this election. But the column inches kept coming with a simple enough message: the UK is about to be overrun by immigrants coming to take our jobs, using for free our hard earned health service and scrounging on our dwindling welfare state, not to mention their un-English cultural habits. Violence sells papers and delivering lies and exaggerations to induce fear is a form of violence.
The second factor was therefore, fear, in a population that is living under the threat of ever increasing austerity and loss of the safety nets that make life a little less stressful: knowing your health needs are covered and knowing your job is secure.
Revelations about racist comments and tweets by UKIP candidates, and people like Neil Hamilton joining in, the Conservative ex-MP who left Parliament in disgrace after accepting bribes for asking certain questions (and who seems to have quite effectively invited far-Right British National Party supporters to vote for UKIP), failed to deter a fearful population from creating this most bizarre arrangement: putting a bunch of fanatic anti-Europeans at the heart of Europe.
Austria, France (Front Nationale 25%) and Denmark saw also the triumph of the Right. It will have no overall majority in the European Parliament but enough to block progressive legislation.
A tricky time to have this mess: the TTIP or EU/US Free Trade Agreement
An economic tsunami is about to hit Europe, and only a united front with careful consideration of the core principles (not many left, but still some of the initial intentions remain) of the European project can neutralise the imposition of this “Free” Trade agreement being negotiated with the US, that intends to give all the advantages to the mega-corporations, driving even more privatisation of services, leaving governments unable to fight back as new tribunals are being set up to defend the interests of the multinationals, and a dilution of safety and environmental standards to “level them up” with the US ones.
The wake up call
All this confirms the failure of the neoliberal system, the window of opportunity to present alternatives, the need for more prominent engagement by social and alternative media to counteract the damage already done by corporate media, and the urgency to present to the public coherent, humanist, nonviolent and inclusive alternatives, inviting participation as well as inspiration from the best and deepest in the human being’s consciousness.
