Far-right political movement that emerged in Europe in the 1960s
The
European New Right
(
ENR
) is a
far-right
movement which originated in France as the
Nouvelle Droite
in the late 1960s. Its proponents are involved in a global "anti-structural revolt" against
modernity
and
post-modernity
, largely in the form of loosely connected intellectual communities striving to diffuse a similar philosophy within European societies.
ENR leaders are generally opposed to
liberalism
,
individualism
,
egalitarianism
, and the
nation-state
. Endorsing a
communitarian
and
organicist
worldview
, they advocate the concept of
ethnopluralism
, which they describe as a global project opposed to
multiculturalism
where collective identities would coexist peacefully within separated geographical and political spaces.
[2]
They do not share, however, a standard and collective political agenda regarding the regime or institutions that should be adopted. Instead of seeking direct electoral results, ENR leaders promote their ideas via a common "
metapolitical
" practice of politics, in order to eventually achieve
cultural hegemony
and popular adhesion to their ideas.
[3]
The European New Right has influenced the ideological and political structure of the
Identitarian Movement
.
[4]
[5]
[6]
Part of the
alt-right
also claims to have been inspired by
Alain de Benoist
's writings, arguably the most influential figure of the movement.
History
[
edit
]
The European New Right (ENR) emerged in France from the
Nouvelle Droite
, an intellectual movement linked to the
ethno-nationalist
think tank
GRECE
, established in 1968 by
Alain de Benoist
and
Dominique Venner
. The original prominence of the French nucleus has declined over the decades, and the movement now appears in the form of a European network of various groups, parties and intellectuals, all sharing ideological similarities and affinities between each other.
[2]
Among them are the
Neue Rechte
in
Germany
,
New Right
(defunct) in the
United Kingdom
,
Nieuw Rechts
(defunct) and Deltastichting in the
Netherlands
and
Flanders
,
Forza Nuova
in
Italy
,
Imperium Europa
in
Malta
, Nova Hrvatska Desnica in
Croatia
, or
Noua Dreapta
in Romania.
[8]
In Italy, the Nueva Destra emerged from the initiative of a group of young members of the neo-fascist party
Italian Social Movement
.
In the 1980s, de Benoist's ideas were introduced and promoted in West Germany by Neue Rechte philosopher
Armin Mohler
.
Ideology
[
edit
]
The ENR has gone through several re-syntheses since its emergence in the late 1960s. The last attempt at a common doctrine dates back to the manifesto "The New Right in the year 2000". Its leading ideas were "the critique of
liberalism
and of the
commodification
of the world; the rejection of
individualism
; an attachment to an
organicist
and
communitarian
view of society; the rejection of
egalitarianism
and of the various forms of
monotheism
from which it arose; the promotion of well-rooted
collective identities
and of the "
right to difference
"; the rejection of the
nation-state
as a form and the promotion of a
federalist model
that applies the principle of
subsidiarity
; and a view of international relations based on the idea of a
multi-polar world
in which Europe would be endowed with its own nationhood, apart from American
omnipotence
, which is designated the chief enemy of the European peoples."
[2]
According to
Jean-Yves Camus
and
Nicolas Lebourg
, the core idea of the ENR is their rejection of the "eradication of cultural identities", which has been caused in the ENR worldview by the principles of
standardization
and
egalitarianism
inherent to the concept of
human rights
. Alain de Benoist denounces the "ideology of sameness" as the idea that both commodities and human beings are increasingly seen as identical and interchangeable.
[2]
According to him, the "greatest" danger in the world at the moment is the "progressive disappearance of diversity from the world", including biodiversity of animals, cultures and peoples.
New Right thinker
Tomislav Suni?
emphasized
Oswald Spengler
's influence on the ENR, especially his assumption that mankind does not exist as such, that "each culture passes through various cycles", and that the concept of
universal history
is a non-sense, as there are only a "plurality of histories and their unequal distribution in time and space."
ENR thinkers believe that the West is living in an "
interregnum
" that will sooner or later give way to a new era in which their worldview would thrive. According to
Roger Griffin
, they developed, in response to this apparent post-fascist "parenthesis", a worldview founded on a "maze-way re-synthesis" of old and new ideological and ritual elements, combined in a "
palingenetic
metanarrative
". The current political order is portrayed as needing to be abandoned or purged of its impurity, so that the "redemptive community" can leave the phase of liminal crisis to usher in the new era. Additionally, ENR leaders frequently invoke a legendary and mythical past they want to symbolically re-ground in the new society about to emerge, not in a spirit of nostalgia for the return of an ancient
golden age
, but rather "to create a rooted futurity, a new reality re-established on firm metaphysical foundations."
This idea is particularly embodied in the concept of archeofuturism promoted by
Guillaume Faye
.
[13]
Some ENR thinkers, who belong to the
Volkisch
leaning of the movement,
[14]
highlight race and ethnicity as the core dimensions of their concept of "identity". This has led to violent rejection of "difference", Faye calling for a "total ethnic war",
[15]
and
Pierre Vial
for an "ethnic revolution" and a "war of liberation".
[14]
[16]
Critics
[
edit
]
Roger Griffin
and Tamir Bar-On argue that the ENR is at the origin of a subtle strategy to reinvent the general framework of fascism while preserving the original fascist
world view
and ideas. They compare the metapolitical stance of ENR leaders to the strategy advocated by
neo-fascist
thinker
Maurice Bardeche
in his 1961 book
What is Fascism?
, where he averred that fascism could survive the 20th century in a new guise:
The famous fascist methods are constantly revised and will continue to be revised. More important than the mechanism is the idea which fascism has created for itself of man and freedom. […] With another name, another face, and with nothing which betrays the projection from the past, with the form of a child we do not recognize and the head of a young Medusa, the Order of Sparta will be reborn: and paradoxically it will, without doubt, be the last bastion of Freedom and the sweetness of living.
?
Maurice Bardeche
,
Qu’est-ce que le fascisme?
(Paris: Les Sept Couleurs, 1961), pp. 175?176.
According to historian
Roger Woods
,
Neue Rechte
philosopher
Armin Mohler
"illustrates the New Right tendency to separate what it regards as a pure version of fascism from the various attempts to put it into practice. He uncouples what he calls 'fascist style' from historical fascism, and on the basis of this distinction declares: 'I am a fascist'".
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
Camus & Lebourg 2017
, pp. 123?124
- ^
Camus & Lebourg 2017
, pp. 120?121
- ^
Camus 2019
, p. 73: "Since the early 1990s, the French New Right has been influential beyond France, especially in Italy, Germany, and Belgium, and has inspired Alexander Dugin in Russia. Part of the American radical Right and “Alt Right” also claims to have been inspired by de Benoist's writings. Although this is questionable, de Benoist and Dominique Venner are also seen as the forefathers of the “identitarian” movement in Europe."
- ^
Teitelbaum, Benjamin R. (2017).
Lions of the North: Sounds of the New Nordic Radical Nationalism
. Oxford University Press. p. 46.
ISBN
9780190212599
.
- ^
Hentges, Gudrun, Gurcan Kokgiran, and Kristina Nottbohm. "Die Identitare Bewegung Deutschland (IBD)?Bewegung oder virtuelles Phanomen."
Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen
27, no. 3 (2014): 1-26.
Read online (pdf)
Archived
2020-01-20 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Minkenberg, Michael (2000). "The Renewal of the Radical Right: Between Modernity and Anti-modernity".
Government and Opposition
.
35
(2): 170?188.
doi
:
10.1111/1477-7053.00022
.
- ^
Francois, Stephane
(2019). "Guillaume Faye and Archeofuturism". In
Sedgwick, Mark
(ed.).
Key Thinkers of the Radical Right: Behind the New Threat to Liberal Democracy
.
Oxford University Press
. p. 94.
ISBN
978-0-19-087760-6
.
- ^
a
b
Zuquete, Jose Pedro (2018).
The Identitarians: The Movement against Globalism and Islam in Europe
. University of Notre Dame Press.
ISBN
9780268104245
.
- ^
Bar-On, Tamir (2014). "A Response to Alain de Benoist".
Journal for the Study of Radicalism
.
8
(2): 141.
doi
:
10.14321/jstudradi.8.2.0123
.
ISSN
1930-1189
.
JSTOR
10.14321/jstudradi.8.2.0123
.
- ^
Shields, James G. (2007).
The Extreme Right in France: From Petain to Le Pen
. Routledge. p. 148.
ISBN
9781134861118
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Bar-On, Tamir (2011). "Intellectual Right - Wing Extremism ? Alain de Benoist's Mazeway Resynthesis since 2000". In Backes, Uwe; Moreau, Patrick (eds.).
The Extreme Right in Europe
(1 ed.). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 333?358.
doi
:
10.13109/9783666369223.333
.
ISBN
978-3-525-36922-7
.
- Bar-On, Tamir (2013).
Rethinking the French New Right: Alternatives to Modernity
. Routledge.
ISBN
978-1-135-96633-1
.
- Bar-On, Tamir (2016).
Where Have All The Fascists Gone?
. Routledge.
ISBN
978-1351873130
.
- Camus, Jean-Yves
;
Lebourg, Nicolas
(2017).
Far-Right Politics in Europe
. Harvard University Press.
ISBN
978-0674971530
.
- Camus, Jean-Yves
(2019). "Alain de Benoist and the New Right". In
Sedgwick, Mark
(ed.).
Key Thinkers of the Radical Right: Behind the New Threat to Liberal Democracy
. Oxford University Press. pp. 73?90.
ISBN
9780190877613
.
- Casadio, Massimiliano Capra (2014). "The New Right and Metapolitics in France and Italy".
Journal for the Study of Radicalism
.
8
(1): 45?86.
doi
:
10.14321/jstudradi.8.1.0045
.
ISSN
1930-1189
.
JSTOR
10.14321/jstudradi.8.1.0045
.
- Copsey, Nigel (2013). "Au Revoir to "Sacred Cows"? Assessing the Impact of the Nouvelle Droite in Britain".
Democracy and Security
.
9
(3): 287?303.
doi
:
10.1080/17419166.2013.792249
.
- Marchi, Riccardo (2016). "The Nouvelle Droite in Portugal: a new strategy for the radical right in the transition from authoritarianism to democracy".
Patterns of Prejudice
.
50
(3): 232?252.
doi
:
10.1080/0031322X.2016.1207924
.
ISSN
0031-322X
.
- Taguieff, Pierre-Andre
(1994).
Sur la Nouvelle Droite: jalons d'une analyse critique
. Descartes et Cie.
ISBN
978-2910301026
.
- Woods, Roger
(2007).
Germany's New Right as Culture and Politics
. Springer.
ISBN
978-0230801332
.
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