Page 21 - STRATEGY Magazine

attractive. Today, a new political era appears to be unfolding: one of the rejection of globalization and the growth of protectionism.
CONTAGION STEMMED, FOR NOW
Emboldened by Brexit, and sup- ported by Donald Trump, rightwing parties across Europe seized the opportunity to halt the march of globalization, campaigning against free trade and for massive reduc- tions in immigration. For a few tense months at the beginning of 2017, it appeared that Brexit may have been the first domino to fall in an increasingly fractious EU. But thus far, the dominos remain standing. In the Netherlands, opin- ion polls showed anti-Islam and an- ti-EU prime ministerial candidate Geert Wilders neck and neck with the incumbent leader, Mark Rutte, in the months preceding the elec- tion in March 2017. However, in what was cautiously lauded as the beginning of the end of anti-EU populist sentiment on the Conti- nent, he failed to clinch the major- ity.
The second great test came in France just two months later, with the far-right National Front’s Ma- rine Le Pen surviving until the fi- nal round of voting for the French presidency. While she was eventu- ally defeated, the election proved a historic result for the French far right as she significantly increased the number of ballots cast for her party for the first time since her father, Jean-Marie, ran for presi- dent in 2002, and she has vowed to continue her fight. Anti-EU feeling remains in countries such as Den- mark, where the powerful far-right Danish People’s Party (DPP), which props up the center-right minori- ty administration, has called for a Danish referendum on less bind- ing conditions of EU membership, albeit not on membership itself. Meanwhile, in Germany, the right- wing populist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has seen a surge
As long ago as 1946, Winston Churchill proposed for Europe “a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom ... a kind of United States of Europe.”
strategybg.com 19
Credit: Alexandre Rotenberg/shutterstock.com