UNDERSTANDING THE ELECTION VOTE IN EUROPE!

UNDERSTANDING THE ELECTION VOTE IN EUROPE

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM - THURS. JUNE 6/19

Beyond the Fog of Politics

Robert Royal (https://www.thecatholicthing.org/author/robert-royal)  Wed. May 30, 2019

"It's not easy to interpret the recent European Union election. Mainstream liberal and conservative parties lost considerable ground while "populists" and, in some countries, Greens showed strong gains. But the raw numbers call for careful pursuing.

Pope Francis was clearly upset by the results. On Sunday, he released a message.... sharply criticizing anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe, claiming that it reflects fear of racism, as well as failures in Christian charity and humanitarian humanitarian engagement. [As a legal immigrant in the U.S.A. in 1958, I beg to disagree.]...

The results actually reflect not only immigration questions, but other factors people in many nations are vaguely feeling: particularly alienation from "democratic" institutions, both national and international, which seem more to reflect the values and concern of elites and less those of ordinary people.....

"Elite opinion assumes there must be something sinister, manipulative, quasi-fascist in the opposition to that orthodoxy. But this would be difficult to prove, since the phenomenon has arisen in quite different contexts worldwide, and now even on the most secularized and bureaucratized continent.

There may be dangers down the line from current nationalist sentiments, to be sure- not least resurgent anti-Antisemitism. But for now, the explanation for the success of these emerging political currents is that they attract voters, from various social sectors....

"Pope Francis was probably most disappointed with the Italian results. The insurgent Lega of Matteo Salvini crushed all other parties with more than a third of the overall vote. The Lega's coalition partner, Cinque Stelle, took 17 percent, and former Prime Minister Berlusconi's Forza Italia 9 percent, 60 percent overall. Meanwhile, the Partito Democratico, liberals similar to American Democrats, won only 20 percent, even though the Italian bishops have been demonizing Salvini and openly sympathizing with the PD (Italian Catholics are often puzzled by this, the PD is the party of abortion and gay activism. [Will the Culture of Death Party in the U.S.A. have Vatican support either directly or indirectly in 2020.]

"Salvini also infuriated some bishops when he held up a Rosary towards the end of the campaign and affirmed that Catholicism undergrids his politics, which seeks to limit immigration and strengthen Italian cultural solidarity.

In the United Kingdom, the Brexit Party - formed only six weeks ago - took a third of the vote, about twice as many as the next party. Traditional parties - Labor and Conservatives - experienced a sharp downturn.

Two fundamental views are now in conflict in many societies. In essence. 1.) Either, human beings are created and, therefore, free but dependent on acknowledging God and nature if they wish to flourish and find happiness. 2.) Or, human beings are random products of a meaningless, material universe, and such happiness as we shall find we have to create for ourselves (even if strict materialism renders human freedom and incoherent idea.)...

Charles Peguy warned a century ago about our age: "this is the world of those without a mystique .. Let there be no mistake, and no one rejoice in it, on either side. The de-republicanization of France is essentially the same movement as the de-christianization of France .... It is one and same movement which makes people no longer believe in the Republic and no longer believe in God, no longer want to lead a republican life and no longer want to lead a Christian life. One and the same sterility withers the city and Christendom. Today, you don't to be a genius or prophet like Peguy to see that the older religious and civic virtues were interconnected - and now that they are separated, both are threatened. Politics alone will not heal the breach. But people instinctively sense how much is at stake. And seem to voting accordingly."  George H. Kubeck