There is a revolution underway in Europe
and America that is overturning established politics and bringing to the fore
younger, more charismatic leaders.
The latest example is the rise of 31 year old Sebastian Kurtz in
Austria. He is almost certain to be made prime minister. Although Kurtz is a
nominal member of the establishment Austrian People's Party, he is ready to
upend Austrian politics by asking the nationalist Freedom Party to join his
coalition.
Just a few short years ago,the anti-immigration Freedom Party
was thought to be unacceptable in Austrian politics. But the massive influx of
refugees has made anti-immigration a mainstream position, which has led not
only to the rise of nationalist parties in Austria, but also in Germany, the
Netherlands, and France. Even radical left parties in Greece and Spain have
made tremendous gains. These parties are no more euro-centric than nationalist
parties elsewhere. And the common denominator is the youth of Europe rejecting
classical politics as debt skyrockets and immigrants threaten to take jobs that
are fast disappearing on the continent.
But another factor is at work in Kurz’s rise, one he shares
with Trump: antipathy toward immigration—and the global rise of the city. Kurz
is part of Austria’s long-reigning, center-right Austrian People’s Party, but
many argue that he was only able to keep the establishment in power by cribbing
much of the platform of his rival, the hardline Freedom Party. Earlier this
week, Kurz invited them into government, a dramatic move for a political party
once broadly viewed in the Austrian public as unacceptable.
“Given the dual shocks of the terrorism and the sheer
numbers of the 2015 influx [of North African and Middle Eastern migrants], it’s
almost surprising these wins for the right didn’t come sooner,” Scott
McConnell, founding editor of The American Conservative, tells
me. He argues: “It’s a good thing if the center-right parties are pushed to
take Gaullist positions,” in the style of the late giant of French politics,
“even it takes the far-right to push them there. . . . It, at least, means
actual election results are beginning to align with voter sentiment on
immigration, which is pretty decisively in favor of restriction.” Even Macron,
ostensibly a centrist, has struck a sterner note on immigration than expected,
and he’s stood by controversial comments that sub-Saharan Africa’s problems
partially emanate from impoverished women recklessly having too many children.
Like Trump, Kurz is ironically from his country’s most
prominent city, but it didn’t matter, as both took up the mantle of traitors to
their class. “Vienna is to Austria what not only DC, but New York, Chicago and
Hollywood are to the U.S.,” says Clemans. “Suburban, small town and rural folk
resent it,” and Kurz was deftly able to exploit “latent anti-Vienna sentiment.”
Clemens adds: “Beyond Vienna, it is a pretty cozy, insular country, so as
elsewhere, lots of people reacted against the image of uncontrolled borders and
people who seem very alien.” The turn rightward seems, at current, almost
unstoppable. Merkel lost seats last month in her re-election bid with an
electoral strategy, of in part, appealing to the center-left. Kurz did the
opposite: “he went the other way and gained.”
The right-left divide is less important to younger voters than
dealing with specific issues that bother them. Their antiestablishmentarianism
results from a clear rejection of the "politics as usual" formula
whether it's from liberals or conservatives. This has favored more nimble
politicians like Macron of France and Kurtz in Austria who have learned to
speak the anti-establishment vocabulary while not scaring off more centrist
voters.
Can millennials save Europe? The forces arrayed against
nationalism in Europe are formidable, and include a media conditioned to
routinely equate nationalism with fascism. But many millennials are beginning
to see through those falsehoods and are embracing, if not more conservative
policies, at least policies that are less euro-centric. There is more
questioning of leaders who apparently don't care about terrorism as much as the
rest of the population does. And while support for the EU remains fairly
strong, questions about the tyrannical way that Brussels seeks to control the
social life of other nations are becoming more prevelant.
It remains to be see whether European youth will actually be able
to stave off disaster. But even a casual observer must be impressed with the
way they've already altered politics and set the establishment scrambling to
reform.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/10/will_the_millennials_save_europe_.html
