Thoughts on the EU Elections

After yesterdays election I was left with a much reviailised interest in politics. It's been years since I participated in a meeting with politicians and I've only attended a few marches and actions since my teen years. But my thoughts have always stayed in that world with a feeling that I should and want to do what I can for this world, whatever that might be. And with the best election in half a century for fascist and far-right parties all over the EU, what better time to start than now? Now, I'm not going to fix the world with a few words on a blog, but my ambitions doesn't end here. I want to do more, but I need to gather my thoughts first. I have a lot of will, and this might just be my way.

So what's the situation like? UKIP, National Front, the Danish People Party, Jobbik, Golden Dawn and my fellow countrymen, the Sweden Democrats are all parties that are doing really well, and they are doing so by spreading fear and hatred over a continent that's famed for its excessive bloodshed throughout the years. And please remember that we've only had a relative peace for just under 70 years, that kind of peace hasn't been seen here for over eighteen centuries. And it it isn't much of a peace neither, nor was it then. Conflicts are still fresh in large parts of Europe and are easily provoked, as seen in Ukraine now for example. Other such conflicts have been seen in the Balkans, Hungary, Ireland and Spain, all of this after the war. Nevertheless, this period has been remarkably peaceful and if we want that to continue we need to work on it!

A few instances has done a good job in keeping that peace, in my opinion. One is the United Nations that was started after the wars to do just that by promoting cooperation internationally. Another is the Olympic Games, perhaps not started for that purpose, however it is doing a good job in securing stable international relations. And a third one is the EU, started to directly keep the peace between France and Germany by a trade union and has now developed much further than that. A lot can be said about the EU, my opinions of it are mixed to say the least, but I will always hold that in high regard. I'm telling you all this because I want to show you how much it takes to simply keep people from shooting each other, and more needs to be done.

What's wrong with the situation now is these parties are instead of cooperating, trading and bettering their relationship with the rest of the world, they're shutting it out, strengthening the borders and sometimes even kicking ethnically "other" people out. They're doing it to be safe, to safeguard your own through trubbled times, because people are afraid. And I get it, I'm afraid too. But this way they're just ensuring the trubbled times continue and perhaps escalate. By simply moving everything "other" outside your borders, tensions are going to rise. Remember, the last time these kind of ideas grew this popular, over 60 million people were killed. But hey, we've only been in a situation like this once before so who knows what's going to happen.

So that's pretty much the opposite of what I would like. In this new era of globalisation we have a much increased cultural exchange, this is true. World economics works quite differently and jobs are being relocated all of the time, much like the industrial revolution, this is true. People are moving more now than ever before, this is also true. This is all happening and it will continue to happen. Stopping it would be like trying to stop a river with your hands. If your strategy is stopping the flow and you're doing it well you are still going to keep at it indefinitely with all you've got, with dubious success. The world is changing and we cannot dam that river, but we can change its direction and perhaps even let it irrigate our lands. We have tremendous technological assets at our hands, a global community to spread all our ideas through and an economy that's actually evening out in many (not all) areas. We can do truly amazing things with this, create a better world. All it takes is cooperation, trade and good international relations, and that can't happen if we cower behind high walls.

My party, the Green Party, made a smashing success, but so did the fascists. So both despite and thanks to yesterdays election, I actually remain hopeful of the future and I will follow this with great interest.


Prosperity and peace
Joakim Henberg