Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Projects
    • Corporate Taxation in a Globalised Era
    • US Election 2020
    • The Transformation of Work
    • The Coronavirus Crisis and the Welfare State
    • Just Transition
    • Artificial intelligence, work and society
    • What is inequality?
    • Europe 2025
    • The Crisis Of Globalisation
  • Audiovisual
    • Audio Podcast
    • Video Podcasts
    • Social Europe Talk Videos
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Shop
  • Membership
  • Ads
  • Newsletter

Rekindled north-south stereotypes are harmful for the European project

by Maria Petmesidou and Ana Guillén on 25th June 2020 @aguillenovi

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on LinkedIn

Underlying the divisions bedeviling a recovery from the pandemic are stereotypes echoing those which emerged during the eurozone crisis.

stereotypes
Maria Petmesidou

The mounting toll from the coronavirus pandemic and its imminent social and economic repercussions constitute a big challenge for the European project. Now, more than ever, the European Union is called upon to show solidarity and emerge stronger from the many crises—health, social and economic—it is facing.

Yet, so far, EU-level decision-making has revealed significant divisions among member states, conducive only to the well-trodden path of ‘muddling through’, which raises serious questions as to the shared future of the union. This is the focus of a heated academic and public debate, vividly evidencing how this exceptional situation is stress-testing the institutional array and the very foundations of European solidarity, and highlighting the challenges ahead.

stereotypes
Ana Guillén

There has however been a missing—subtle but very important—dimension to the debate, which is having serious negative impacts on solidarity and social cohesion. This is how different European nations are being represented and portrayed through the politico-ideological mechanisms of discourse.

Moral tales

Alarmingly, north-south stereotypes have been rekindled in terms of how the pandemic has been handled by various European countries, resonating with the noxious discourse of austerity during the eurozone crisis. The dominant political rhetoric in the European north and the EU institutions has been one of moral tales contrasting the ‘frugal north’ with the ‘imprudent, reckless south’.

Crude, value-laden stereotypes and clichés have resurfaced in many discursive contexts, as reported by the BBC, the Guardian, Politico and others. These have pitted ‘smart Sweden’ or ‘intelligent lockdown that treats people as adults and not as children’ (according to the Dutch prime minster) against countries purportedly lacking the prepared ‘financial buffers’ (according to his finance minister) to cope.  

Cutting-edge thinking straight to your inbox

"Social Europe publishes thought-provoking articles on the big political and economic issues of our time analysed from a European viewpoint. Indispensable reading!"

Polly Toynbee

Columnist for The Guardian

Thank you very much for your interest! Now please check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

In southern-European member states, the media have meanwhile been aflame with indignation and Euroscepticism is rapidly increasing among their 130 million citizens, fuelling populist narratives, for instance in Italy. Such anger stems not so much from the EU’s (expected) slow response—the usual cacophony, the lack of agreement, the limits to sanitary aid and the refusal to mutualise the debt and approve eurobonds—but the disdainful declarations on the part of several member-state leaders.

Citizens of the southern ‘periphery’—by the way, including the third and fourth largest economies of the EU—are very aware they will have to tighten their belts once again, and this before the impact of the last crisis has been overcome. Nobody is more conscious of their own (political, economic or other) failings and errors than themselves or more ready to acknowledge them publicly. But it is one thing to face tough times so soon again and recognise one’s own faults; it is a very different thing to have to do so in the face of contempt expressed by fellow European citizens.

Bitter memories

Memories remain bitter of the similar political rhetoric dominating austerity discourse several years ago. People in the south were publicly accused of being lazy, corrupt, spendthrift, hardly productive, caring for nothing but fiesta and even (by the then Dutch finance minister) ‘spending all their money on wine and women’ (the offence amplified by the sexist assumptions)—in a nutshell, of being lesser human beings than their northern counterparts and, therefore, undeserving.

During the pandemic, that list of stigmas has been enlarged to include southerners being not mature, intelligent or disciplined enough to avoid compulsory confinement. Such PIGS!


Please help us improve public policy debates


As you may know, Social Europe is an independent publisher. We aren't backed by a large publishing house or big advertising partners. For the longevity of Social Europe we depend on our loyal readers - we depend on you. You can support us by becoming a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month.

Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

Never mind that their health services, greatly debilitated by a one-sided focus on protracted and damaging austerity—more or less directly enforced on them since the financial crisis—could have crashed, had strict lockdown measures not been introduced. Astonishingly, the most recent Post-Programme Surveillance Report for Portugal, released amid the pandemic (on April 8th), warns the country authorities of fiscal threats, due to excessive expenditure ‘on compensation of employees, as well as on pension[s] and healthcare … [i]ndependent of Covid-19’.

Destructive derision

Legitimising policies by ‘morality narratives’ evoking total disrespect is inadmissible—especially among people involved in a common project. Are collective failures a rare phenomenon in north-European countries? Certainly not. Why then have southern-European citizens to endure a game of moral power exercised by the European north?

Creditors or debtors, we all need each other to keep the European economy afloat in an increasingly competitive global context. There is no future based on destructive derision and disrespect. Humiliating southern citizens threatens the viability of the union, on top of the nationalistic tensions already generated by ‘Brexit’.

Would it instead be possible to talk to each other, to try to resolve conflicts, to negotiate and reach agreements, deliberating as democratic European fellow-citizens in a dialogue devoid of insults and derogatory expressions? Navigating the pandemic and its aftershocks will depend on it.   

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on LinkedIn
Home ・ Rekindled north-south stereotypes are harmful for the European project

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: coronavirus

About Maria Petmesidou and Ana Guillén

Maria Petmesidou is professor emerita of social policy at Democritus University, Greece. For several years she was a member of the scientific committee of Comparative Research on Poverty, sponsored by the International Social Science Council and the University of Bergen. Ana M Guillén is professor of sociology at the University of Oviedo (Spain) and director of Promoting Work and Welfare in Europe. Her research interests include welfare-state development, comparative social and labour policy and Europeanisation and European integration.

Partner Ads

Most Popular Posts

decarbonisation,energy transition Europe’s decarbonisation challenge? ‘Wir schaffen das’ Adam Tooze
integrated review Lost an empire, not found a role Paul Mason
Uber v Aslam,UK Supreme Court Putting the brakes on the spread of indecent work Ruth Dukes and Wolfgang Streeck
debt cancellation,cancellation of debt,ECB Cancelling a debt we already own has a false allure Anne-Laure Delatte, Michel Husson, Benjamin Lemoine, Éric Monnet, Raul Sampognaro, Bruno Tinel and Sébastien Villemot
horizontal inequalities,vertical inequalities Fissures that tear us apart and pressures that weigh us all down Kate Pickett

Other Social Europe Publications

RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?
US election 2020
Corporate taxation in a globalised era
The transformation of work
The coronavirus crisis and the welfare state

Social Europe Publishing book

With a pandemic raging, for those countries most affected by Brexit the end of the transition could not come at a worse time. Yet, might the UK's withdrawal be a blessing in disguise? With its biggest veto player gone, might the European Pillar of Social Rights take centre stage? This book brings together leading experts in European politics and policy to examine social citizenship rights across the European continent in the wake of Brexit. Will member states see an enhanced social Europe or a race to the bottom?

'This book correctly emphasises the need to place the future of social rights in Europe front and centre in the post-Brexit debate, to move on from the economistic bias that has obscured our vision of a progressive social Europe.' Michael D Higgins, president of Ireland


MORE INFO

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Renewing labour relations in the German meat industry: an end to 'organised irresponsibility'?

Over the course of 2020, repeated outbreaks of Covid-19 in a number of large German meat-processing plants led to renewed public concern about the longstanding labour abuses in this industry. New legislation providing for enhanced inspection on health and safety, together with a ban on contract work and limitations on the use of temporary agency employees, holds out the prospect of a profound change in employment practices and labour relations in the meat industry. Changes in the law are not sufficient, on their own, to ensure decent working conditions, however. There is also a need to re-establish the previously high level of collective-bargaining coverage in the industry, underpinned by an industry-wide collective agreement extended by law to cover the entire sector.


FREE DOWNLOAD

ETUI advertisement

Social protection during the pandemic: freelancers in the creative industries

This working paper identifies some key areas of policy intervention for advancing socially sustainable and fair solutions for freelancers working in the creative industries, who are among those who have suffered the most from the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, the authors focus on those who work entirely on their own account, without employees (ie the ‘solo self-employed’), and who undertake project- or task-based work on a fixed-term basis.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Industrial relations: developments 2015-2019

Eurofound has monitored and analysed developments in industrial relations systems at EU level and in EU member states for over 40 years. This new flagship report provides an overview of developments in industrial relations and social dialogue in the years immediately prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Findings are placed in the context of the key developments in EU policy affecting employment, working conditions and social policy, and linked to the work done by social partners—as well as public authorities—at European and national levels.


CLICK FOR MORE INFO

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

#Care4Care!

It took us a global pandemic to realise that we depend on care. Despite all the clapping from the balconies, care workers continue to work in precarious and vulnerable conditions. Women, who represent 70% of the care workforce, continue to suffer from a severe lack of recognition for both their paid and unpaid care work. It’s time for a care revolution! It’s time to #Care4Care! The Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), together with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), has been intensively working since 2019 to monitor the EU gender equality policy agenda through a progressive lens focusing particularly on its care dimensions.


FIND OUT MORE HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Find Social Europe Content

Search Social Europe

Project Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

.EU Web Awards