As elections loom a new divide is opening up in European politics, one that cuts across the old battle lines
Peloponnesian skies, amid the olive groves and cypress trees where zealous athletes once competed for glory, Manfred Weber, a centre-right Bavarian politician, raises a hand to touch one of the ancient columns of Nemea, affecting contemplative wisdom. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the Greek centre-right, welcomes him to the “home of democracy”, a fitting place for him to launch the campaign which hopes to see him elected one of Europe’s most powerful leaders.
Nemea offers a wealth of resonance and metaphor for the state of Europe. There is work going on there which plays some unclear role between emergency preservation and eventual restoration. The shut-down factories seen when driving out from Athens, and the 30% of local youth without jobs, recall the crisis in the euro zone which pushed Greece to the brink of leaving. The same road was an artery for refugees leaving Turkey during the migration crisis.
Possibly as a result of having peered over more than one brink, possibly as a result of an increasingly alarming world beyond their borders, Europeans are regaining some faith in the. In a survey of union-wide opinion taken last September, 62% of respondents said that membership was a good thing, the highest proportion since 1992. Only 11% said it was a bad thing, the lowest rate since the start of the financial crisis .
Nevertheless, the decade of living dangerously seems to have reshaped European politics into something a bit more cohesive, if not coherent. Europe is no longer in the business of expansion, or of integration come what may. It is in the business of protection. “A Europe which protects”, a phrase you cannot avoid in the corridors of Brussels, is increasingly heard on the campaign trail, too.
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