Is There Any Hope For Western Europe?

“Everything seemed hunky-dory”

Bruce Bawer var meget aktiv som skribent og counterjihadist for ti-tretten år siden. Som homoseksuel var han flygtet fra amerikansk bornethed til hollandsk og senere norsk frisind. I Amsterdam opdagede han ret hurtigt, at en anden politisk kraft var ved at lukke det Europas udsyn og frisind, han var emigreret for at nyde godt af. Efter  en årelang pause har han nu fået sin anden luft som en ægte Tour de France-rytter. Han er 62, han har meget i sig endnu.

Obviously there was something major happening on the outskirts of Amsterdam – something that wasn’t reflected in the newspapers I read and the news programs I watched on Dutch TV. And if this was happening in Amsterdam, I surmised, it was probably happening in other major European cities.

Sweden? Lost

The so-called “populists” are winning big scare headlines in the leftist mainstream media, but not enough votes to make a difference. In this year’s European elections, Germans, apparently having forgotten the mass rapes on New Year’s Eve 2015-16, went for the Greens. In France, the weekly street protests bv gilets jaunes seem barely connected to concerns about rapid Islamization. Belgium? Forget it. Sweden? Lost. In Denmark’s 2019 elections, support for the Islam-critical Danish People’s Party dropped like a rock. In the UK, the success of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party was a step forward, but if Brits want to save their country they’ll need to overcome Farage’s silence on Islam. In the Netherlands, Thierry Baudet’s Islam-critical party, founded three years ago, is doing OK, but largely because it’s taking voters from Geert Wilders. And in Norway the once-promising Progress Party, now in government for six years, has long since gone mainstream, leaving critics of Islam without a real home.

The brightest glimmer of hope in Western Europe is in Italy, where Matteo Salvini’s victory last year, like Trump’s in 2016, encouraged serious people across the continent who want their own countries to take such steps. Many also look with admiration to the governments in Hungary, Poland, and other Eastern European countries that have withstood EU demands that they take in Muslim migrants. But is there any real hope for Western Europe? I have to admit to being baffled and frustrated by the continued refusal of these countries’ voters to stand up for their children’s futures, but I have to add that other informed observers are more optimistic than I am. An interview with Bruce Bawer, author of ‘While Europe Slept.’

Bruce Bawer i mit køkken, 2006. Til højre Jette Dali og Hans Rustad. Den tids digitale fototeknik.