The major political parties of Europe have been taking a beating in recent elections from “far-right” parties and leaders. A lot of leftists/liberals/progressives/etc. just can’t seem to understand why and simply call the opposition racist, virulent, and anti-immigrant with no real economic policies. Considering that the PanHellenic Socialist Party ruled Greece almost continuously from 1982 to 2011, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party ruled Spain from 1982 to 1996 and 2004 to 2011, the Socialist Party ruled Portugal from 1995-2002 and 2005-2011, and that these were some of the hardest hit countries by Europe’s economic failure for the last six years or so perhaps people are just tired of leftist failures? It really would be nice if leftists would stop blaming the “stupidity of voters”, resorting to calls of “racism” or “anti-immigration“, and saying that only the left offers any real economic policies. The left really shouldn’t be surprised that individual citizens want to have a say in how their own country functions without being beholden to a supranational federal state that is trying to bring twenty-eight nations together.
Does it really make sense to have a common currency without a common economic policy? What exactly is the common defense strategy of a united Europe? Even the E.U.’s own audit found that it doesn’t trust how it spends its own money. Why should anyone have to listen to Mr. Junker? Why would any reasonable country want to be burdened with taxes retroactively because they were more successful than anticipated? I find it unreasonable to expect such a matching of nations to be forced into a federal system when the E.U. isn’t a real nation? Why shouldn’t citizens take some pride in their own country as opposed to a monolithic European state?
The “far-right” parties of Europe don’t agree on everything, it’s not as if they’re a single monolithic group of people. The United Kingdom Independence Party refused to align itself with the Front National(FN) while the Freedom Party of Holland (PVV) joined together with the FN. Such a position will probably only work to UKIP’s benefit. The FN believes in some leftist economic policies anyway, along with the PVV also shifting to the left despite both parties being branded “far-right”. The left can cry racism, anti-immigration, and virulent all they want, much of what UKIP stands for seems reasonable to me. Perhaps much of Europe’s ruling elite is just so far removed from individual citizens that they can’t understand why people would want something different. As for the FN and PVV, I’m not so certain. And really, how well has socialism done for other countries like Venezuela or Argentina?
If you’re interested in seeing Nigel Farage debate his opponents about the merits of the E.U., here are a few videos for you:
I mean really, just who the hell does the European Parliament think they are?
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