Tea at Trianon: Berlin’s Firewall Comes Tumbling Down

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, February 15, 2025

Berlin’s Firewall Comes Tumbling Down

From Postliberal Order:

In his Valentine’s Day Speech at the Munich Security Conference, Vice President JD Vance said there is "no room for firewalls" ahead of German elections where political parties have vowed to not work with AfD even though millions will vote for the anti-immigration party. Today, our guest Mr. Csaba Stefán writes from Budapest as a researcher at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs about why this firewall was erected, and why it must now fall. He is grateful for the assistance of Szabolcs Helmeci. We are pleased to offer his essay paywall-free at Postliberal Order.
The political elite in power has failed to provide adequate and effective responses to the European crises of the last decades (the financial crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, migration crisis, Russo-Ukrainian war, etc.). Their failure to manage these crises has led to the rise of a number of political parties across Europe deemed “radical” by the elite, but which they themselves have enabled through their failures.
The distinctions between different traditional parties have become increasingly blurred as each of these parties vying to fill the void are increasingly articulating the same messages with only nuanced differences. See, for example, the alliance between the Social Democrat Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) in Romania, or the grand coalition between the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ).
The parties which European elites label as “radical,” however, are attracting voters because they propose solutions that go beyond the messages formulated by the elite, which have proved ineffective. They develop innovative approaches to the problems they face and take a critical stance towards certain turns in European integration or towards EU institutions. This positioning reinforces the perception that the elite only serve the interests of those who stand to gain most from the status quo. The result is that a growing number of voters across Europe are looking for their own return to greatness.
This is not the first time in history that so-called radical right-wing parties have gained strength, but it is also clear that, unlike in the past, these parties are gaining real strength on the ground — these are no longer “flash in the pan” populist movements soon to lose their significance. (Read more.)