The Age of Rhetoric: the Risks of the Effectiveness of Global Pact on Migration in the Context of European Populism and National Anxieties

The rise of populism in many European countries, Brexit, and “the popularity” of populism as Nigel Farage said in his farewell speech in the European Parliament is rooted in more than pure electoral rhetoric. This paper examines the causes for the popularity of populism and the risks on global projects such as the Global Pact on Migration. The assumption of this paper is that the resurgence of identity politics is more than an agenda based on fear, it addresses a global anxiety connected with the failure to trust the future and the failure to bond on common identity between East and West. In Europe, the rift is between Eastern Europeans and Western Europeans, with Hungary building walls against the asylum-seekers and Slovakia questioning their religion, while globally Russia and China are the main competitors and existential threat for both EU and US. In the age of rhetoric, we should be able to understand the underlying motivations for the success of one narrative over the other. The popularity of populism is striking because it resonates both with nationals and immigrants of first generations. Little research has been conducted to understand the reluctance of minorities confronted with globalization and migration. In the context of the failure to reach a common European policy on migration and external affairs, the Global Pact on Migration just adds to a culture of rhetoric with little end results, if any. Each national state will follow their own national interests in the coming years, and even the common EU security and foreign affairs agenda is under question, as much as the understanding of a common European identity. The anxieties over the European identity, perceived mainly from a Western perspective is increasingly high in several Central and Eastern European states, who want to assert their own identity within the European Union. Beyond a mere problem of identity clash, which is understandable, we need to look more attentively at the profound divergence of a common European vision: while the West, through the voice of young Emmanuel Macron envisions a strong Europe without NATO or US and more friendly with estranged Russia, the East, through several voices of the Eastern nations are extremely reluctant to embrace Russia and a volatile sense of European security, submitting to the European common policies on migration, foreign affairs and the role of Europe in the world. This fractured perception of what Europe is and should be is anchored in profound old fears and wounds, that will not make possible an agreement on anything that shadows the national sovereignty of young Europeans. This paper will explore the dualities of European identity from an Eastern perspective.