Commentary
Nationalism and armament: The last resorts of the failed
Leaders in dire straits, and their circles, are turning inward. In the midst of a cultural involution, they have rediscovered the spirit of “us vs. them,” with its side dish of more or less explicit racism.
On March 5, Emmanuel Macron made a solemn address to the nation. France, he said, must defend itself; there is a serious danger from Russia; it is time to rearm France and all of Europe.
The most unpopular president of the Fifth Republic, brought low by two electoral failures in a row, unable to counter the advance of the ultra-right, the architect of what in Italy used to be called a governicchio [translator’s note: a diminutive, flimsy government], is attempting to revive his fortunes by donning the uniform of the European war chieftain, who can boast a few dozen atomic bombs in his arsenal. Rearmament would also be good business, given the flourishing state of the French arms industry.
Starmer's situation is no different. Having won the election on the collapse of the Conservatives rather than on his own merits, falling steadily in the polls for a long time, crushed under the damage wrought by previous governments, inauspicious economic conditions and broken public services, and a prisoner of austerity orthodoxy, Starmer has relaunched his image somewhat with his pro-Ukraine activism. And what do you know: the U.K. also happens to be a nuclear power.
Merz, the next federal chancellor, is not doing well either. Germany is suffering. Public services are ailing, but most of all, the last stronghold of European manufacturing is in crisis, after being defended at the expense of other countries' manufacturing, of which just a few vital regions remain, such as Italy's Northeast, but which is a shadow of its former self. Democracies don’t wage war, but they do send others to the gallows. Between free competition, prohibition of state aid, budget constraints and the single currency, Germany has rescued itself, but it has claimed many victims, the most tragic being Greece. In the long run, the stronghold is failing. Amid rising energy costs, lagging innovation and Chinese competition, Merz is hanging his hat on rearmament.
Many leaders of Europe and their circles are not doing well. Von der Leyen is not doing well, who only has a slim majority; those along the eastern border aren’t doing well; Meloni is not doing well either. While the latter has been zealously enforcing the constraints of the Stability Pact, industrial production in Italy has been falling for 24 straight months. For ideological reasons, Meloni flirts with Trump, imagines doing business with Musk, but cannot disassociate herself from von der Leyen. According to a well-established division of labor, she leaves that task up to Salvini, who is trying to make bank by exploiting pacifism. Meloni, too, sees rearmament as a panacea.
There are substantial reasons for rearmament; Putin is by no means a dove. But there are also entirely political ones as well. After a quarter of a century of anti-immigrant hammering by the extreme right, the aggression on Ukraine offered mainstream parties a surrogate to attract voters: Western democracies are cast as under attack from Russian autocracy and its equally autocratic allies, starting with China and Iran. It is worth reading the paranoia-afflicted resolution voted on March 11 by the European Parliament.
It is clear that Putin is nursing neo-Czarist designs. He, too, is facing terrible internal difficulties. Russia is a vast country, home to disparate populations, possessing enormous natural resources, but the transition to the market has benefited only a handful of oligarchs, who enriched themselves using legal and illegal means, surrounded by a narrow layer of underlings. Subjected to harsh police methods and intense propaganda, the condition of the population has not improved much. So he attacked Ukraine and is trying to corrupt electoral contests in the West, to some unclear extent. Warmongering suits him too, and neo-Czarism is a strong narcotic to mask real problems.
As for Trump, amid brutality, arrogance and appeals to white supremacism, even to the point of supporting the neo-Nazis of Europe, he also has to deal with an uncomfortable situation. Biden had tried to revive the economy by enacting long-term policies – which, however, have done little to alleviate the conditions of large sections of the population. The burden of public debt is enormous, which is why, among sanctions and the withdrawal of military protection, Trump wants to unload his problems onto Europe, Canada and others. All the while, in the small sliver of the West that is Israel, Netanyahu has been tearing up what was left of international law to take a disproportionate and bloody revenge on the Palestinian population and reinforce his own teetering political position.
Meanwhile, wily China is watching the events unfold. It is not the only one. It is watching the spontaneous, unplanned collusion of failures. Leaders in dire straits, and their circles, are turning inward. In the midst of a cultural involution, they have rediscovered the spirit of “us vs. them,” with its side dish of more or less explicit racism. Unable to imagine any form of international cooperation that would promote peace, on the issues of development and global warming – after all, even intra-European cooperation is hostage to the principle of competition – they are focusing on nationalism and arms.
At the same time, the (very much willful) collusion of the failures on the Italian left serves as a mediocre subplot. It is obvious that the times call for more intense European cooperation, including military cooperation. To give concrete substance to that obviousness, Michele Serra called for Saturday’s great popular demonstration. But, as he himself realized, there are several different Europes – not just “Fortress Europe,” to which a part of the PD leadership is devoted, while another part agrees with PD secretary Schlein on its dramatic inadequacy and huge costs. This is an opportunity for the failures in and around the PD, defeated at the polls and in the primaries, to enlist the support of the amenable press and TV channels to get rid of a secretary who refuses to defer to them – one who is apparently guilty of heresy against the pro-European and democratic faith, of the crime of stolid pacifism. All while the extreme right rejoices. They might be failures, but they’re dangerous nonetheless.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/nazionalismo-e-armamenti-la-congiura-dei-falliti on 2025-03-18