Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Yesterday, today and the shadow of fascism

Werner de Gruijter 1st January 2024

Why has the far right returned, after Holocaust and war? Chaos unnerves the vulnerable, sugaring fascism’s hollow promises.

fascism,far right,populists,Trump
‘There’s nobody that has more respect for women than I do,’ said Donald Trump, repeatedly, in his 2016 election campaign—after the ‘Access Holywood’ tape revealed his routine misogyny (stock_photo_world/shutterstock.com)

Somewhere in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, far-right populists emerged here and there. Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro—initially they were seen merely as ripples in the otherwise turbulent waters of international politics.

But since then, their ideology has spread ever more widely. At least in Europe, they now make themselves appear indispensable. Hungary and Italy are already under far-right rule, as was Poland until the recent elections. In Finland and Sweden, they are critical to right-wing coalitions. In Belgium, France and, following the elections there also, in the Netherlands, these same forces are gaining influence.

Modern fascists

True, there are significant differences among populists, radicals and conservatives. But there is an unmistakable surge in extreme right-wing, even fascistic ideologies in many western nations.

Paul Mason, Social Europe columnist, writer and journalist, warns in How to Stop Fascism that many of these movements subscribe to the ‘great replacement theory’—echoing past extremist ideologies, when indigenous populations were depicted as victims of immigration. They seek to reverse the advances made by feminism, much as they did nine decades ago when women were instead elevated in an imaginary way as ‘breeders for race and nation’. And they disdain democracy and the public sphere, exhibiting scepticism towards intellectuals and the media: Trump’s ‘fake news’ charge recalls that of the Nazis against die Lügenpresse (‘the lying press’).

Until now, most western liberal governments have dismissed the far right as a passing anomaly, often explaining its rise in economic terms. The Oxford political philosopher Anton Jager recently argued in the New York Times that European politicians had become too focused on business interests from the Maastricht treaty of 1992, leading to inequality and deteriorating public services; the far right could thus present itself as the only credible challenger to the status quo.

This economic perspective is important but it is not the whole story. The post-pandemic recovery the European Union has sought to promote would not in itself solve the deeper problem of a population drifting towards authoritarian, fascist ideas. It is like trying to rescue someone entangled in the wild currents of ideological turbulence with a leaking lifebelt.

Embracing lies

The autobiography of Stefan Zweig (1881-1942), The World of Yesterday, sheds admirable light on the appeal of fascism and offers a deeper understanding. Zweig saw the rise of fascism as the outcome of a dynamic process of social and economic disruption—a process plunging the lives of millions into chaos, undermining their self-image and arousing a deep desire to embrace and even disseminate lies.

The Austrian-Jewish Zweig, one of the most feted authors in the 1920s and 30s, was a fervent humanist. The World of Yesterday is an ode to the vibrant Vienna of the early 20th century. A stable Viennese society had been ruled for centuries by the Habsburg dynasty—Zweig even called the 19th century the ‘golden age of certainty’. But eventually Vienna was swept up in the turmoil of world war.

The rise of the far right had however already begun, led by such figures as Karl Lueger, later mayor of the city. They used anti-Semitic rhetoric, neatly wrapped in respectable words, to channel the discontent of the petite bourgeoisie, more afraid of sliding into the Proletariat than envious of the wealthy. Zweig saw here the seeds of later extremist movements.

The upward economic dynamics of the early 20th century led to feverish nationalism and evoked powerful emotions. This excitement was however fleeting and required constant stimulus. Intellectuals, writers and especially journalists played a role in this—in Zweig’s words ‘beating the drum of hate’, which eventually contributed to war.

Frenzied maelstrom

In Zweig’s Austria, postwar epidemic (Spanish flu), housing shortages and especially inflation led to a chaotic, rapidly changing society. Money suddenly lost its value, small change disappeared and cities began printing their own ‘emergency money’. Prices shot up without any logic and people bought anything they could get their hands on. Society became a frenzied maelstrom where savers and debtors switched places, shrewd speculators profited and honest people went hungry.

What happened in Austria unfolded in Germany with even greater force. The Mark danced, spun and crashed in paroxysms of madness. What seemed firmly established yesterday melted like snow before the sun today. The morning paper cost 50,000 marks, while the evening edition asked double and no one found this strange anymore. Exchange rates rocketed, took dizzying leaps and collapsed just as quickly, like a house of cards.

Values were reversed, so what was once a vice suddenly became quite normal here too. In the dark corners of Berlin Zweig sketches, wealthy gentlemen sought the company of high-school students from well-off families (looking to earn some extra money). The city’s nightlife exceeded the debauchery of ancient Rome under the ruthless ‘Suetonius’.

With the arrival of the new German Mark, the frenzy abruptly ended. The ‘little man’ had been defeated; the great triumphed. A period of free experimentation, during which Zweig remarked that the excesses left him a sense of ‘artificiality’, radically changed into its opposite.

Because of the devastating inflation, the German public harboured a deep hatred for the democratic, liberal Weimar republic. Distrust of the government was widespread. Even war, despite its horrors, had brought moments of triumph and joy. But inflation had only deceived and humiliated. A generation would never erase the memory nor forgive the republic—the German self-image was dented. In 1924 the madness seemed over, but the longing for order, stability and authority was stronger than ever. 

Slowly but surely, this made Germany yearn again for its former ‘butchers’ who had the first world war on their conscience. The Nazi ‘stab in the back’ myth, wrongly blaming Jews and Communists for Germany’s defeat, thus fell on fertile ground. Zweig remarked: ‘Nothing embittered the German people—and this must always be borne in mind—nothing made them more ripe for Hitler than inflation.’

Identity crisis

Today, a similar social dynamic seems to be returning to some extent. According to Mason, western societies internalised the neoliberal values of competition, materialism and individualism in recent decades, without offering an attractive, alternative narrative.With the collapse of this neoliberal worldview—with the 2008 crash, the rollback of globalisation, rising inequality, the pandemic and the increasingly urgent call for climate action—many citizens find themselves in an identity crisis. The old narrative that hard work and self-improvement would eventually lead to wellbeing and prosperity has lost its power in a stagnant, unfairly shared and polluting economy.

Many long for meaning, but can no longer obtain it by looking at the world through the lens of the market alone. This rupture in the worldview, says Mason, opens the door to far-right, sometimes outright-fascist movements.

These political forces outline an alternative utopian narrative: the leader, in the role of father figure, claims to be able to provide certainty amid uncertain times by exerting total control—by oppression, in other words—while not shunning racism, misogyny and violence. This effects a reversal of modern values and restricts the freedom to be oneself. Yet it provides those who subscribe to it with an illusion of dominance, security and purpose.

Zweig’s autobiography illuminates how, especially in times of crisis, fascism emerges as an ideological conversion among those who shun freedom. It is therefore too simple to rely on superficial economic corrections. What is needed is an alternative leadership characterised by selfless service, which can provide a guiding light in the darkness. Western governments seem however disinclined to demonstrate such leadership—and our democracies are vulnerable.

Zweig was an involuntary spectator at the most horrendous collapse of reason and the most brutal triumph of barbarism. He wrote: ‘Never before—I put this down not with pride, but with shame—has a generation fallen from such a spiritual height, from such moral power as ours.’ In 1942, in the grip of despair, he committed suicide, together with his wife—one day after he had sent the manuscript of The World of Yesterday to his publisher.

Werner de Gruijter 1
Werner de Gruijter

Werner de Gruijter is a lecturer in social sciences and pedagogy at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u421983ae 3b0caff337bf 0 Europe’s Euro Ambition: A Risky Bid for “Exorbitant Privilege”Peter Bofinger
u4219834676b2eb11 1 Trump’s Attacks on Academia: Is the U.S. University System Itself to Blame?Bo Rothstein
u4219834677aa07d271bc7 2 Shaping the Future of Digital Work: A Bold Proposal for Platform Worker RightsValerio De Stefano
u421983462ef5c965ea38 0 Europe Must Adapt to Its Ageing WorkforceFranz Eiffe and Karel Fric
u42198346789a3f266f5e8 1 Poland’s Polarised Election Signals a Wider Crisis for Liberal DemocracyCatherine De Vries

Most Popular Articles

startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer
u421983467 2a24 4c75 9482 03c99ea44770 3 Trump’s Trade War Tears North America Apart – Could Canada and Mexico Turn to Europe?Malcolm Fairbrother
u4219834676e2a479 85e9 435a bf3f 59c90bfe6225 3 Why Good Business Leaders Tune Out the Trump Noise and Stay FocusedStefan Stern
u42198346 4ba7 b898 27a9d72779f7 1 Confronting the Pandemic’s Toxic Political LegacyJan-Werner Müller
u4219834676574c9 df78 4d38 939b 929d7aea0c20 2 The End of Progess? The Dire Consequences of Trump’s ReturnJoseph Stiglitz

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!


Since President Trump’s inauguration, the US – hitherto the cornerstone of Western security – is destabilising the world order it helped to build. The US security umbrella is apparently closing on Europe, Ukraine finds itself less and less protected, and the traditional defender of free trade is now shutting the door to foreign goods, sending stock markets on a rollercoaster. How will the European Union respond to this dramatic landscape change? .


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss European defence strategies, assess how the US president's recent announcements will impact international trade and explore the risks  and opportunities that algorithms pose for workers.


READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

S&D Group in the European Parliament advertisement

Cohesion Policy

S&D Position Paper on Cohesion Policy post-2027: a resilient future for European territorial equity”,

Cohesion Policy aims to promote harmonious development and reduce economic, social and territorial disparities between the regions of the Union, and the backwardness of the least favoured regions with a particular focus on rural areas, areas affected by industrial transition and regions suffering from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps, such as outermost regions, regions with very low population density, islands, cross-border and mountain regions.

READ THE FULL POSITION PAPER HERE

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

What kind of impact is artificial intelligence (AI) having, or likely to have, on the way we work and the conditions we work under? Discover the latest issue of HesaMag, the ETUI’s health and safety magazine, which considers this question from many angles.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
How are minimum wage levels changing in Europe?

In a new Eurofound Talks podcast episode, host Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Carlos Vacas Soriano about recent changes to minimum wages in Europe and their implications.

Listeners can delve into the intricacies of Europe's minimum wage dynamics and the driving factors behind these shifts. The conversation also highlights the broader effects of minimum wage changes on income inequality and gender equality.

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641