Ilán Semo: Europe: bizarre times

The power of a prophecy does not lie in foreseeing the future, but in giving shape to the events of the present. If only history, when it repeats itself, did so, in fact, first as a tragedy and then as a farce (Marx dixit), Europe should sleep soundly. A short time ago, its far-right fringes appeared as a kind of delusional corner, another histrionic skirmish from the past. What did Vox represent in Spain if not the incontinence of the post-Franco era? In 2023, Fratelli d’Italia had achieved nothing more than (de)monstrating the unviability of the “organic State”. The English economic catastrophe – accelerated by Brexit – became the most efficient warning for those who doubted its permanence in the union. And the supposed threat of Marine Le Pen, in France, represented only the favorite banner of the political center to snatch votes from Mélenchon’s left, perhaps the most articulate on the continent.

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