Pan-European nationalism

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Not to be confused with Pan-European identity.
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 Nationalism. For the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective, see Eurocentrism. 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, and inspired several proposals for some form of confederation. 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. A notable recent attempt is European Union; it is not like a single nation but it represents an effort in making European countries more connected.

History

Some of the 19th-century nationalists were supporters of a form of European unity. The Italian nationalist Giuseppe Mazzini, the founder of Young Italy and an inspiration for Young Ireland, also founded an association called Young Europe in 1834. (Mazzini sought no European state: he saw Europe as inherently composed of nations). The International Paneuropean Union or 'Paneuropean Movement' was founded in 1923 by Richard Nikolaus Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi. It survived the Second World War, and had some influence on the formation of the European Economic Community. (Coudenhove-Kalergi first proposed An die Freude as European anthem).

Towards the end of the Second World War, Nazi-German propaganda emphasised the 'European' nature of the struggle against the Soviet Union. However, no concrete proposals for a pan-European structure replaced the earlier ideas of German hegemony in its Lebensraum.

After the war, the Swede Per Engdahl created a European Social Movement (with the same name as a small French collaborationist party, founded in 1942 by Pierre Costantini) alongside Maurice Bardèche. A more extremist splinter group, the New European Order, would also emerge under Switzerland's Gaston Armand Amaudruz

Shortly afterwards Francis Parker Yockey created the European Liberation Front which only had a brief existence. Much the same fate awaited the European Popular Movement created at the end of 1950s by Otto Strasser

In 1960, parallel to the foundation of Jeune Europe by Jean Thiriart, the latter, with Otto Strasser and Oswald Mosley, briefly created the National Party of Europe. Mosley promoted European Nationalism with his Europe a Nation campaign, and through his (British) Union Movement. 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 France, pan-European nationalism is represented by the Bloc Identitaire.

Another organisation, though more preoccupied with anti-semitic and anti-american considerations, is the Réseau Radical.

In Belgium 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.

In both countries the idea is also advocated by the Parti Communautaire National-Européen, a National Bolshevik group that succeeded Jean Thiriart's earlier Parti Communautaire Européen.

The Russian National Bolsheviks want to unite Europe and Russia (including its Asian part) into one Eurasian union led by Russia (Neo-Eurasianism).

See also

External links

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