The EU And The Rise Of European Nationalism

As the European Union strives to create a unified identity, rumblings of nationalism eat away at this vision.  Most member countries have a right wing party, dubbed Europhobes, with a populist formula to restore national pride and national identity.  Two themes dominate these parties:  the EU is a magnet for illegal immigration, primarily from Africa and the Middle East;  and the EU is a threat to national sovereignty.  Most of these parties are moderate in their views and actions (at least for now). 
In Sweden, for example, the Sweden Democrats have purged the party of its openly extremist members and changed its neo-fascist logo to a blue flower.  Still, leader Jimmie Akesson denounces the EU as a "monster state"  with too much control centralized in Brussels.  He said "we simply want to return power to the voters..... it's just common sense that we should restrict who is coming into our country".

Other right-wing parties, however, offer policies reminiscent of a lighter shade of fascism.  Jobbik, Hungary's third largest party, recently protested a conference of the World Jewish Congress in Budapest.  Leader, Gabor Vona, said "The Israeli conquerors..... should look for another country in the world.... Hungary is not for sale".  The party tried to introduce a bill in Parliament banning "sexual deviancy"  and it runs a paramilitary wing often accused of beating up gypsies (see photograph).  Greece's Golden Dawn party uses a Nazi salute;  while Geert Wilders, head of Holland's Party For Freedom claims "Islam is not a religion it's the ideology of a retarded culture".

These nationalist parties and many others are expected to figure prominently in 12 of the 28 upcoming elections for the European Parliament.  Can the pan-European dream hold in the future?  Of course, only time will tell.  But former American Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger made an astute observation when he said:  "The United States had more or less a common philosophy, they were a society before they were a state.  Europe isn't a society.  An election campaign that goes from Denmark to Sicily isn't operating in the same country."