The end of World War II was supposed to be not just a decisive military moment, but also a victory over tyranny — a victory over the Nazis and their terrible extremism and hatred.
Therefore, D-Day, It’s natural to wonder if the victory is lingering or the sacrifices are fading.
Eighty years after the Normandy landings, does Europe still remember the people who once vowed to never forget?
Auschwitz, Dachau, and other cruel memorials The Holocaust Although it still exists, anti-Semitism has never completely disappeared.
“We were cannon fodder,” 98-year-old Ken Cook said of D-Day.
In fact, their numbers have increased significantly over the past six months, moving from antipathy toward the Israeli government to contempt for Jews in general.
But before the war began GazaAt the time, the internet was still awash with ludicrous claims about Jewish bankers running the world, the kind of claims that would seem absurd if they weren’t so similar to the propaganda spewed by Goebbels in the 1930s.
Echoes of the past reverberate. SpainNostalgia for General Franco runs strong, and a political party called Vox aims to rehabilitate the former dictator’s reputation.
In Italy, the Prime Minister Giorgia Melonirepresents a party with fascist roots, and while Meloni has distanced herself from that history, the impression is that her success has softened the hard lines of the past.
Just a few months ago, hundreds of people gathered to mourn the death of Italy’s wartime Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, all of them giving multiple, orchestrated Fascist salutes.
In Germany it’s illegal. In Italy it just happened.
Populism, nationalism, and Right Edge Rhetoric, or a mix of all of these, is on the rise. Trust in mainstream politicians is declining. Extremism is on the rise.
Is this just a political passing phenomenon, or with the anniversary of June 6th and the Second World War in mind, should we be worried that Europe is once again starting to look like a dangerous, explosive melting pot?
I spoke privately to senior diplomats across Europe to solicit their opinions.
I expected them to say that the question was an overreaction and that there was nothing to worry about.
Instead, each acknowledged their concerns.
“It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately,” one person said. “I don’t think there’s a direct comparison to the 1930s, but there are certainly similarities.”
Each said they believed the rise of extremism was linked to disillusionment with mainstream politics.
“For decades politics has been fought over the middle ground, so you end up with big parties that all say similar things about society and the economy,” one diplomat told me.
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“Then when economic problems come along, and especially when a pandemic and a war occur at the same time, some people look for more radical solutions.”
“It is very important that we never forget the Normandy landings,” says French Navy Commander Lieutenant Commander Yohane
“Plus, of course, some young people just don’t want to follow in their parents’ paths.
“We’ve seen a surge in politicians focusing on deliberately vague ideas about identity and sovereignty, and social media is rife with misinformation.”
It is impossible to talk about the rise of far-right and populist parties without talking about social media, which has greatly amplified conspiracy theories and a destabilizing and divisive media agenda.
European voters who say social media is their main source of news are also the ones who least trust large institutions, including politicians, the police, the health service, banks and mainstream journalism.
“My government doesn’t want to get into TikTok because of its links to China and questionable figures like Andrew Tate,” another diplomat said.
“But it has paved the way for other politicians to take over, and we are leaving an avenue for extremists to have a huge influence on a mainly young audience.”
French National Rally Marine Le Pen As the Speaker of Parliament, he has invested heavily in social media. Tick tock.
The party’s representative, Jordan Bardella, has 1.3 million followers on TikTok, three times the number who follow him on X.
One could argue there are similarities: the Nazis used propaganda in unprecedented ways, focusing relentlessly on Germany’s innate greatness and the danger of the Jews, who were portrayed as “outsiders” determined to undermine the country.
Immigration currently receives a lot of attention, is always portrayed as a problem, and is often portrayed as dangerous.
please look The number of people who took to the streets the other day With Tommy Robinson.
Even in an age when politics can seem ambiguous and complicated, there are always people who are attracted to debaters who focus on one theme.
But if there is one major political theme of D-Day, it is the idea that it was the triumph of democracy over totalitarianism.
Since then, Europe, and much of the Western world, has accepted and adopted democracy as the norm, but there is no guarantee that this will continue forever.
Russia and other authoritarian regimes have spent billions of yen trying to discredit European democracies, and it may be working.
While most people still prefer democracy above all else, young people seem more likely than anyone else to accept the idea of living under an authoritarian government.
Young people in their late teens and early twenties are twice as likely to support the idea of a military junta as older people.
The rule of law is eroded in some countries, such as Hungary and Poland.
The Balkans remains a volatile region, and we could find ourselves engulfed in a new conflagration if mercurial Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic decides to send troops into Kosovo.
Transnistria, a pro-Russian exclave between Moldova and Ukraine, is also a potential flashpoint, as is the disputed territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
But Europe now has barriers that did not exist in the 1930s.
The European Union, for all its shortcomings, unites its member states to face problems.
NATO has transformed Europe’s military outlook by ensuring uninterrupted peace among its member states.
International law is maintained by independent institutions.
So the problem may not be that democracy or European security is fundamentally failing.
But maybe it isn’t delivering what the people want – after all, isn’t that the whole purpose of democracy?
This is not the 1930s. There are no Nazis or real fascists in power. Europe is now a safer, more stable and more predictable continent.
But today the continent is more unstable: war in the east, political unrest everywhere, and calls for change.