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Showing posts with the label nationalism

Germany's Far Right Party AfD and Its Rhetoric of Radicalisation

“Millions of migrants from other cultures challenge the foundations of our community, the unwritten rules of coexistence, and thus national identity itself,” wrote the German politician Alice Weidel in her 2019 book “Counter-arguments. Thoughts about Germany” (German: “Widerworte. Gedanken Ć¼ber Deutschland”). Weidel is the co-chairwoman of the far right party Alternative for Germany (Alternative fĆ¼r Deutschland, AfD) and the leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany's federal legislature. In recent years, the AfD has gained significant support and influence in German politics. The party was founded in 2013 as an anti-euro movement, but later shifted increasingly towards right-wing extremism.   Alice Weidel in 2019.  Sandro Halank , CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons The AfD surged to 24% in a January 2024 YouGov poll, trailing only the Christian Democrats (29%), and ahead of the Social Democrats (15%) and the Greens (12%). On January ...

It's The Culture War, Stupid! - How The Far Right Uses Religious and Ethnic Identity to Mobilize Voters

" Impeach Trump Rally " by  Geoff Livingston  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 .

Nationalism And Socialism - The Two Souls Of Catalan Separatism

They steal from us €60 million a day, independence=necessary"; pro-independence march in July 2010 (by  JuanmaRamos-Avui-El Punt  via Wikimedia Commons) Catalan separatism is not a coherent movement that unites the entire population of the region. Not only are Catalan voters split on the issue of independence, with about half of them supporting the preservation of autonomy within Spain. But the Catalan independence movement itself is deeply divided. On the one hand, secessionism is fuelled by a nationalist ideology that views the nation as a community with a distinct language, history and culture which requires an independent state to thrive. According to this view, people who are different cannot coexist within the same state. We have already discussed the contradictions of this concept of  self-determination  in a previous article. However, there is also another element to the independence movement that has not been often explored: a far-left ...

Hong Kong Must Follow Xi Jinping Thought, Promote Patriotism, Says China-Hong Kong Liaison Office

The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (via Wikimedia Commons) In an article published on Chinese state-run news outlet People's Daily on June 28, the Liaison Office of Chinese central government in Hong Kong argued that Xi Jinping Thought  must be applied to the former British colony in order to promote nationalism and solve Hong Kong's "long-term problems". The op-ed quotes a speech that Xi Jinping gave during a visit to Hong Kong in the summer of 2017 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the handover. "As a special administrative area under the direct jurisdiction of the Central People's Government, Hong Kong has since the day of the handover once again become part of the nation's system of government," Xi had said.  According to the Liaison Office , Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is "the most recent outcome of Chi...

The Long History of Anti-Immigration Rhetoric

  Pro-EU march in London on March 25, 2017 (by Ilovetheeu via Wikimedia Commons) "Open-door migration," wrote  Nigel Farage  on June 21st, 2016, "has suppressed wages in the unskilled labour market, meant that living standards have fallen and that life has become a lot tougher for so many in our country. We must leave the European Union so that not only can wages increase for British workers but so that living standards rather than declining can start going up. The wellbeing of those living and working in our country matters to me more than GDP figures. The EU’s open borders make us less safe. As a bureaucratic club it makes us poorer."  The  Vote Leave  campaign, too, warned that  immigration  posed a threat to the UK's safety and prosperity. "Nearly 2 million people came to the UK from the EU over the last ten years. Imagine what it will be like in future decades when new, poorer countries join," Vote Leave argued. In September 2017 UKIP le...