(UPDATE) CURRENT SITUATION: NOTES ON THE GLOBAL CRISIS (17. EUROPEAN ELECTIONS THE IMMIGRANT AS A TARGET)

 

EUROPEAN ELECTIONS:

THE IMMIGRANT AS A TARGET OF IMPERIALIST CHAUVINISM

The situation is showing the cards of the reactionary state in the current situation of further development of the general crisis and decomposition of imperialism and uneven development of the revolutionary situation. This is our most general comment on the last elections in Germany and the main imperialist countries of the European Union for the nomination of representatives of the states to their parliament.

 

In the current situation, the bourgeoisie needs to organize and mobilize the masses for its imperialist objectives at home and abroad. The previous forms no longer correspond to the development of the objective and subjective situation, they need to readjust it and the tricks for the manipulation of the masses are wearing out, today faster than before.

 

Those who represent the vanguard of the proletariat in formation in the imperialist countries, in this case the EU, need to foresee the turn of the reactionary offensive underway in their countries for the great enlightenment to promote and strive to lead the struggles of the rising masses in function of the reconstitution of the communist parties. Knowing that the masses are an arena of contention between revolution and counterrevolution.

 

This is what the imperialists and reactionaries have to draw on to fulfill their need for a new restructuring of the State. This is the reactionary task that falls to the two factions of the imperialist bourgeoisie and the different groups in collusion and struggle within it. Since imperialism is imperialism, that is, reaction and violence across the board, they always draw on imperialist chauvinism and racism, in their particular expressions according to the social-chauvinist audience, open racism or covert racism as a “fight against anti-Semitism” directed mainly against foreigners from the MOA. 

Regarding the above, the disputes between them are reactionary in nature and in how they present it. They need it to instil patriotism (chauvinism) to prepare for a foreign war and anti-immigrant sentiment to divide the class because they need to over-exploit the immigrant workforce to obtain imperialist super-profits on EU soil.

 

They need to create an enemy as a target against whom to launch their nationalism, in the case of the openly xenophobic, and for the others, disguising that same nationalism by presenting immigrants as a target as a problem, that of “illegal immigration”, “unstoppable”, a new version of the “ship is full” of the early 90s. It is the target of their imperialist nationalism to try to drag the masses behind their reactionary flags. Furthermore, linked to the above is the defence of the order of imperialist oppression and exploitation, which for some is represented as “defence of democracy” against “anti-democratic parties” or “Nazi” or fascist slogans and, for others, as the “fight against the established parties”, “guilty of all the evils” of the system. .

 

After what has been said above as a brief introduction, the question arises as to whether the election results were a great catastrophe for the reactionary democracy of the States of the imperialist alliance of the European Union, which in this way announce the apocalypse of the current system? The call to defend it by Scholz, Macron, Von der Leyen, Sánchez, etc., what real meaning does it have? 

They say it represents a shift to the extreme right and conservative. To start with, the voter turnout at EU level was miserable. Let's look at the voter turnout by EU country:12/06/2024 - 11:28

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12/06/2024 - 14:58

All times are GMT+2

Turnout by country (%)Provisional results

Turnout by country in percentage points
Country	Percentage (%)
European Union	51.01%
Austria	56.30%
Belgium	89.82%
Bulgaria	33.79%
Croatia	21.35%
Cyprus	58.86%
Czechia	36.45%
Denmark	58.25%
Estonia	37.60%
Finland	40.40%
France	51.50%
Germany	64.78%
Greece	41.39%
Hungary	59.45%
Ireland	49.84%
Italy	48.31%
Latvia	33.82%
Lithuania	28.35%
Luxembourg	82.29%
Malta	73.00%
Netherlands	46.20%
Poland	40.65%
Portugal	36.54%
Romania	52.42%
Slovakia	34.38%
Slovenia	41.45%
Spain	49.21%
Sweden	50.70%

 

Source: Data provided by Verian for the European Parliament

Now, regarding Germany:

The voters who did not turn out to vote or did not cast their vote represent just over 25% of the eligible voters. This means that, looking at the table below, the percentages given are 64.78% who participated, which is considered 100% of the participants for statistical purposes.

The electoral alliance with the most votes, the CDU/CSU, which the commentators refer to as conservatives, was something like 1.5 million or 31% of the voters.

 

The AfD, the far-right parties referred to by the commentators, were close to one million voters17% of the voters.

 

But including the AfD fascists, which commentators include among the non-established parties, this electoral current of discontent represents 40% of the voters, which includes from those mentioned above to the animal protection party and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (6.2 Prozent).

 

The fact is that in Germany, France, Spain, etc., the parties or coalitions in government have suffered a great rejection from those who have gone to vote and have not spontaneously rejected the electoral farce. The spontaneous rejection or discontent is expressed mainly in the official figures of voters and non-voters.

 

Regarding the AfD, it is a fascist, racist and immigrant-hating party, but within it, we are not talking about who votes for it, but about its supporters, there are up to three currents in collusion and conflict: the new fascism, the most reactionary elements dissatisfied with the other reactionary parties from which they originally come, and a third current or force of old fascism, the so-called neo-Nazis. As we know, the new fascism will not come with the slogans and paraphernalia of the old fascism defeated in World War II, but as a new fascism. As a party that participates in elections and is represented in parliament, it is a state institution and its leaders and representatives are state officials, according to the interpretation of the Constitution on subsidies to political parties, although this is in contradiction with the constitutional norm on the nature of representation.

For this reason, the AfD is in a hard struggle within itself and with the other reactionary parties to adapt to the legal order in force in the Fundamental Charter of 1949 and must follow a similar path to that of Meloni in Italy or that of Le Pen in France. This is the path of the new fascism.

Chairman Gonzalo warns us in the case of Peru, that it is not now a matter of forming an anti-fascist front but of taking advantage of the inter-reactionary contradictions as they arise, in each concrete situation of the class struggle, to divide the enemy; always remember to use double politics to confront them one by one. The President says, that of the anti-fascist front was another circumstance, it is not up to us to repeat it. In the face of fascism or any other circumstance, says the President, it is up to us to develop the people's war. That is, in any place in the world what corresponds to the revolutionaries to confront any situation that arises or comes about is to make the revolution. That is why the main thing here is to apply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the concrete conditions of each revolution. Ideology, program and general political line with the military line at its center.

 

The commentary that appeared next in Zurich's Nuevo Diario, in the section that we reproduce below, sums up the situation well:

 

“THE OTHER VIEW

Debacle in the European elections: the SPD is in a hole, it cannot get up and it keeps digging

After this election result, the Social Democrats no longer have any excuses. But the leaders still refuse to think about the deeper causes of their party's weakness.

Susanne Gaschke, Berlin; June 10, 2024, NZZ Deutschland. 

The result of the European elections is a disaster, a debacle, a catastrophe for the Social Democratic Party of Germany and its Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The oldest party in the world did not get 40 percent as Gerhard Schröder did before, nor 25 percent as in the 2021 federal election, but only 13.9 percent of the vote.

 

Helmut Schmidt's party, which once so credibly defended its love for the European idea, did not get even half as many results as the Christian Democrats and ended up in third place behind the right-wing Alternative for Germany party. Where, by the way, it has been languishing in the opinion polls for months.

It was a fall with a foreshadowing, and the plan that led to the abyss bears, for everyone, the signature of Olaf Scholz. This Chancellor, no matter what he believes about himself or makes others believe, never seems to have grown politically beyond the stature of a Juso vice-president.

 

None of the usual excuses count. The election weather on Sunday was good and voter turnout was higher than in 2019. This time, unlike five years ago, 16-year-olds were allowed to vote, which was very important for the SPD, but young people also vote less and less for the Social Democrats (9 percent).

 

The AfD, whose leading candidates were embroiled in scandals before the election and which is isolated within the European right, received clearly more support than the Chancellor's party, with almost 16 percent. Overall, the situation is such that the German “progressive coalition” consisting of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP only has 30 percent of the vote. Emotionally, she is fired (from the government).”

 

The SPD has lost the sense of its clientele. 

The serious opposition, i.e. the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU), alone achieves the same figure: 31 percent. And this time 40 percent of Germans voted for fringe parties, from the AfD to the Animal Welfare Party and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (6.2 percent). The vast majority of these fringe parties are friendly to Russia” 

(“The other view” debacle in the European elections: The SPD is in a hole, cannot get up and keeps digging, today by Susanne Gaschke, author of NZZ Germany” , June 10, 2024).

 

It is a good summary, debacle of the government and mainly of its head Scholz and the SPD. An accustomed phenomenon, a debacle announced in the face of the situation of the masses

 

These results and others like them from the governing parties in the EU have been followed by a deafening propaganda that serves to blind people so that the deception passes and they can advance in the plans of state restructuring to ward off the revolution at home and the imperialist war abroad. Using immigrants as targets against whom to launch their campaign within the reactionary offensive underway.