Pan-European nationalism
Encyclopedia
- This article is about those who claim that Europe is, or should be, a single nation. For the history and ideology of nationalism in Europe, see NationalismNationalismNationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
. For the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective, see EurocentrismEurocentrismEurocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective and with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture...
. For those who state that the European Union should be a federation or confederation, see :Category:Eurofederalism.
The idea that Europe should be united politically has been present in European culture since the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, and inspired several proposals for some form of confederation
Confederation
A confederation in modern political terms is a permanent union of political units for common action in relation to other units. Usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution, confederations tend to be established for dealing with critical issues such as defense, foreign...
. With the growth of nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
in the 19th century, several pan-national
Pan-nationalism
Pan-nationalism is a form of nationalism distinguished by the large-scale of the claimed national territory, and because it often defines the nation on the basis of a ‘’cluster’’ of cultures and ethnic groups. It shares the general nationalist ideology, that the nation is a fundamental unit of...
ideas of Europe developed, some of them based on Aryanism
Aryan race
The Aryan race is a concept historically influential in Western culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or...
and other race theories. After Nazi policies and the Holocaust discredited these racial theories, the emphasis shifted to cultural
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
pan-nationalism.
Within the larger current of pan-European thought, there are those who explicitly support the idea that Europe is a single nation, or that it should seek to become one. In French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, this concept is known as Nation-Europe or Europe-Nation and it is almost always associated with right-wing and neo-fascist groups, and especially with the French New Right
Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite is a school of political thought founded largely on the works of Alain de Benoist and GRECE .-Etymology and history:...
(Nouvelle Droite). The term European Nationalism is sometimes used in English which may be shortened to Euronationalism.
Support for the idea is politically marginal. Paradoxically - since a single nation-Europe implies the disappearance of existing nations - it is found mostly on the fringes of nationalist parties.
History
Some of the 19th-century nationalists were supporters of a form of European unity. The Italian nationalist Giuseppe MazziniGiuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini , nicknamed Soul of Italy, was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century...
, the founder of Young Italy and an inspiration for Young Ireland
Young Ireland
Young Ireland was a political, cultural and social movement of the mid-19th century. It led changes in Irish nationalism, including an abortive rebellion known as the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848. Many of the latter's leaders were tried for sedition and sentenced to penal transportation to...
, also founded an association called Young Europe
Young Europe
Young Europe was an international association formed in 1834 on the model of Giuseppe Mazzini's Young Italy. It was composed of the national societies of Young Italy, Young Poland, and Young Germany, which, independent in their own sphere, acted in common, through a central committee, for the...
in 1834. (Mazzini sought no European state: he saw Europe as inherently composed of nations). The International Paneuropean Union
International Paneuropean Union
The International Paneuropean Union claims to be the oldest European unification movement and is also referred to as the Paneuropean Movement and the Pan-Europa Movement...
or 'Paneuropean Movement' was founded in 1923 by Richard Nikolaus Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi
Richard Nikolaus Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi
Richard Nikolaus Eijiro von Coudenhove-Kalergi was an Austrian politician, geopolitician, philosopher and count of Coudenhove-Kalergi...
. It survived the Second World War, and had some influence on the formation of the European Economic Community
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...
. (Coudenhove-Kalergi first proposed An die Freude as European anthem).
Towards the end of the Second World War, Nazi-German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
propaganda emphasised the 'European' nature of the struggle against the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. However, no concrete proposals for a pan-European structure replaced the earlier ideas of German hegemony
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
in its Lebensraum
Lebensraum
was one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany...
.
After the war, the Swede Per Engdahl
Per Engdahl
Per Claes Sven Edvard Engdahl was a leading Swedish far right politician. He was the leader of Sveriges Fascistiska Kamporganisation, SFKO during the 1920's.-Career:...
created a European Social Movement
European Social Movement
The European Social Movement was a neo-fascist Europe-wide alliance set up in 1951 to promote Pan-European nationalism.The ESM had its origins in the emergence of the Italian Social Movement , which established contacts with like-minded smaller groups in Europe during the late 1940s, setting up...
(with the same name as a small French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
collaborationist party, founded in 1942 by Pierre Costantini
Pierre Costantini
Pierre Dominique Costantini or commandant Costantini was a French soldier, journalist, writer and Bonapartist militant.-Life:...
) alongside Maurice Bardèche
Maurice Bardèche
Maurice Bardèche was a French essayist, literary and art critic, journalist, and one of the leading exponents of Neo-Fascism in post-World War II Europe...
. A more extremist splinter group, the New European Order
New European Order
The New European Order was a neo-fascist Europe-wide alliance set up in 1951 to promote Pan-European nationalism. It was a more radical splinter-group of the European Social Movement....
, would also emerge under Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
's Gaston Armand Amaudruz
Shortly afterwards Francis Parker Yockey
Francis Parker Yockey
Francis Parker Yockey was an American political thinker and polemicist best known for his neo-Spenglerian book Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics, published under the pen name Ulick Varange in 1948. This 600-page book argues for a culture-based, totalitarian path for the...
created the European Liberation Front
European Liberation Front
The European Liberation Front was a small neo-fascist group that split from Oswald Mosley's British Union Movement in 1948. Its founder and ideological inspiration was Francis Parker Yockey. In 1949 they issued a manifesto titled The Proclamation of London, written by Yockey...
which only had a brief existence. Much the same fate awaited the European Popular Movement created at the end of 1950s by Otto Strasser
Otto Strasser
Otto Johann Maximilian Strasser was a German politician and 'left-wing' member of the National Socialist German Workers Party. Strasser was part of the ‘left-wing’ faction of the party, along with his brother Gregor Strasser, and broke from the party due to disputes with the ‘Hitlerite’ faction...
In 1960, parallel to the foundation of Jeune Europe
Jeune Europe
Jeune Europe was an Europeanist movement formed by Jean Thiriart in Belgium. Emile Lecerf, a later editor of the Nouvel Europe Magazine, was one of Thiriart's associates....
by Jean Thiriart, the latter, with Otto Strasser and Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
, briefly created the National Party of Europe
National Party of Europe
The National Party of Europe was an initiative undertaken by a number of political parties in Europe during the 1960s to help increase cross-border co-operation and work towards European unity....
. Mosley promoted European Nationalism with his Europe a Nation
Europe a Nation
Europe a Nation was a policy developed by British politician Oswald Mosley as the cornerstone of his Union Movement. It called for the integration of Europe into a single entity....
campaign, and through his (British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) Union Movement
Union Movement
The Union Movement was a right-wing political party founded in Britain by Oswald Mosley. Where Mosley had previously been associated with a peculiarly British form of fascism, the Union Movement attempted to redefine the concept by stressing the importance of developing a European nationalism...
. Jeune Europe disappeared in 1969. It was succeeded by several pan-European movements of less importance, such as Comité de liaison des européens révolutionnaires and the European Liberation Front (the second organisation with this name).
Current groups
In FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, pan-European nationalism is represented by the Bloc Identitaire
Bloc identitaire
The Bloc Identitaire is a French nationalist political group. It was founded in 2003 by some former members of Unité Radicale and several other nationalist sympathizers, including Fabrice Robert, former Unité Radicale member, former elected representative of the National Front and also former...
.
Another organisation, though more preoccupied with anti-semitic and anti-american considerations, is the Réseau Radical
Réseau Radical
Radical Network was a French far right study group formed in June 2002, with a number of its early members coming from those who split from Unité Radicale that April, notably Christian Bouchet, Luc Bignot and Giorgio Damiani....
.
In Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
the principal European-nationalist organisation is the group Synergies européennes led by the college lecturer Robert Steuckers. It is considered part of the New Right
Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite is a school of political thought founded largely on the works of Alain de Benoist and GRECE .-Etymology and history:...
.
In both countries the idea is also advocated by the Parti Communautaire National-Européen
Parti Communautaire National-Européen
The Parti communautaire national-européen is a Belgium-based political organisation led by Luc Michel, a former member of the Neo-Nazi FANE party. A largely National Bolshevik movement, it also has activists in France....
, a National Bolshevik
National Bolshevism
National Bolshevism is a political movement that claims to combine elements of nationalism and Bolshevism. It is often anti-capitalist in tone, and sympathetic towards certain nationalist forms of communism and socialism...
group that succeeded Jean Thiriart's earlier Parti Communautaire Européen
Parti Communautaire Européen
The Parti Communautaire Européen was a pan-European nationalist political party based in Belgium that had a platform similar to National Bolshevism....
.
The Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n National Bolsheviks want to unite Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
(including its Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n part) into one Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
n union led by Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
(Neo-Eurasianism).
See also
- Pan-European identityPan-European identityPan-European identity refers to the sense of personal identification with Europe. The most concrete examples of pan-europeanism are the European Union and the older Council of Europe...
- Pan-nationalismPan-nationalismPan-nationalism is a form of nationalism distinguished by the large-scale of the claimed national territory, and because it often defines the nation on the basis of a ‘’cluster’’ of cultures and ethnic groups. It shares the general nationalist ideology, that the nation is a fundamental unit of...
- NationalismNationalismNationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
- InternationalInternational----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...
- EurocentrismEurocentrismEurocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective and with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture...
- National BolshevismNational BolshevismNational Bolshevism is a political movement that claims to combine elements of nationalism and Bolshevism. It is often anti-capitalist in tone, and sympathetic towards certain nationalist forms of communism and socialism...
- European UnionEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...