It is distinct from Pro-Europeanism, which is primarily underpinned by liberal values, in being based on a civilizational understanding of Europe as a continent of whiteChristians with shared histories and cultural values and usually seeking to transform the current political system of European Union.[1]
In their "European Declaration" of 1 March 1962, the National Party of Europe called for the creation of a European nation-state through a common European government, an elected European parliament, the withdrawal of American and Soviet forces from Europe and the dissolution of the United Nations, which would be replaced by an international body led by the United States, the Soviet Union and Europe as three equals. The territory of the European state was to be that of all European nations outside the Soviet Union, including the British Isles, and their overseas possessions.[3]
Current situation
In 2014, Raphael Schlembach describes the existence of "a form of pan-European nationalism — a 'Europe for the Europeans' — that is based upon anti-Americanism and ethno-pluralism" within "some sections" of European neo-fascism.[4] Indeed, European nationalist organisations continued to exist on a minor scale after the disintegration of the National Party of Europe in the 1970s, but no group advocates a "European nation state".
According to scholars, former European nationalist groups now propose a European ethnic federalism based on an ideology of "European culturalism"[5] or, according to Dimitri Almeida, they underwent a "Eurosceptic turn", the ideology of European nationalism being largely replaced by hard Euroscepticism by the 2010s.[6]
Hannah Arendt warned in 1954 that a "pan-European nationalism" might arise from the cultivation of anti-American sentiment in Europe.[10] Her warning has been deemed obsolete by the 1990s:
Gerard Delanty argued, "Europe could never constitute a coherent identity because there is 'no external opposition' to it" (a role foreseen by Arendt as to be taken by America).
In the opinion of the scholar Anton Speekenbrink in 2014, nationalism was replaced by a "postmodern world order" in the postwar period ("Nationalism was dead, but it was not replaced by pan-European nationalism or by a pan-European identity"). It instead invoked a "European idea", which was said to be transformed into an "idea of diversity of identity" combined with a "commonality of values".[11]
^Raphael Schlembach, Against Old Europe: Critical Theory and Alter-Globalization Movements (2014), p. 134
^"Though it took nearly ten years for this Nouvelle Droite to be discovered by the media, its elitist discourse, its claims to be scientific and its emphasis on European culturalism were influential throughout the 1970s in rehabilitating a number of ideas previously held to be indefensible. The New Right's strategy of intellectual rearmament was the polar opposite of commando activism, but continuity of personnel and, in substance (though not in form), of major tenets can be traced back to the OAS and beyond." Vaughan, Michalina, "The Extreme Right in France: 'Lepénisme' or the Politics of Fear" in: Luciano Cheles, Ronnie Ferguson, and Michalina Vaughan (eds.), The Far Right in Western and Eastern Europe (second ed. 1995), pp. 215–233 (p. 219),
^Dimitri Almeida, The Impact of European Integration on Political Parties: Beyond the Permissive Consensus, Routledge (2012), p. 137.
