The European Flag Against Trump?
President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office on January 20, 2025. (Photo: https://x.com/JCCIC/status/1881443104932483148, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
This article was originally published by La Marea on 27 January 2025 and translated by John Collins.
We are witnessing the spectacular and, so far, unstoppable rise of all forms of fascism. We find the most recent act of this drama in the United States with the victory in the recent elections of the Republican Party led by Donald Trump, whose electoral program, even beyond demagoguery and grandiose statements, did not hide its intentions and is already being carried out.
The elimination of basic social rights for women, occupation of institutions, persecution and expulsion of immigrants, attacks on policies designed to confront climate change, unrestricted support for fossil fuels, suppression of basic constitutional protections, tax cuts for the rich, a massive movement of resources toward corporate oligarchies, withdrawal from multilateral organizations, imperial designs (Greenland, the Panama Canal, Canada), the application of harsh protectionist policies…A full-fledged offensive led by the most important capitalist power, which will have consequences not only in that country, but also on a global scale.
The US President has been able to rely on the unconditional support of the heads of large companies (not only the tech companies) who have provided him with unlimited financial and media support. He was accused of instigating a coup d'état in order to prevent Biden from taking office, and he has been convicted several times for falsifying business records and found liable for sexual abuse.
Protesters on January 10, 2025, outside the New York City Criminal Courthouse where Donald Trump was sentenced—remotely—for committing 34 felonies. (Photo: SWinxy, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
A criminal at the head of the United States who has not hidden his intentions; on the contrary, he has aired them publicly without any shame. Well, this person is repeating his presidency (this is his second term), and an important thing for the Left to recognize is that he does so with broad electoral support from a substantial part of the workers hardest hit by the crises and the globalization of markets and from some of the most vulnerable population groups, all of whom will surely see the worsening of their living conditions with the application of Trumpist policies.
Some European governments - such as those of Italy, Hungary, and Poland - have enthusiastically celebrated Trump’s election since it implies enormous support for their own policies.
A scene from the CPAC Hungary 2024 conference. (Photo: Elekes Andor, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Meanwhile, others, such as Spain and the EU institutions, headed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, preach caution and say they are ready to collaborate with the new US administration even as they defend the idea of Europe as a reality and as a project.
The European “alternative” to Trump
But what is this Europe that proclaims itself as an alternative to Trumpism and the so-called illiberal democracies?
We’re already used to grasping at straws when confronted with the unstoppable rise of fascism, but I’m convinced that appealing to the idea of “more Europe” (a starting point we’re already familiar with) is the wrong path. In fact, this alignment, which is not new, is not stopping the far right from winning greater and greater electoral support and, in some cases like the ones mentioned above, from entering into governments.
The actually existing Europe, which is where we need to put the focus since there is no other starting point, is very far from that naive, deformed, and biased European dream that speaks to us of progress, equality, convergence, and human rights.
The growing power of oligopolies, the refusal to apply progressive fiscal policies, the occupation of public spaces by corporate elites, the failure of the struggle against climate change, the growing inequality in the distribution of incomes and wealth, the growth in military spending, the subordination to the aggressive strategy of NATO and the US, the violation of human rights in the area of immigration, the shameful complacency with which the genocide against the people of Gaza is viewed - is this what Europe demands?
Javier Milei, President of Argentina, flanked by billionaire Elon Musk, US President-elect Donald Trump, and others in November 2024. (Photo: Argentina.gob.ar, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
This reality that I have just sketched in broad strokes has nothing to do with the European flag that is defended as a counterweight to Trumpism. This drift has given, and continues to give, a political space to fascism and to the Right in general, creating apathy and skepticism in large sectors of the population. What contributes to this is a certain way of doing politics, both in form and content, that only counts on the population at election time. And the cherry on top is provided by the large unions and leftist parties that supposedly represent the interests of workers and the popular classes. Anchored in the institutional mechanism of what is possible and dialogue without confrontation, they have proven themselves incapable of reversing these dynamics.
If, in the face of rising fascism, the dominant position is “let’s defend this Europe, the one embodied by liberal democracies,” if we do not commit with conviction to another Europe and to other economic policies grounded in the mobilization of the popular classes, the battle is lost, and the powerful coalition of political, media, corporate, and financial interests committed to unrestricted, predatory capitalism will impose its will.
