OPINION

Where are our principles?

Where are our principles?

When neo-Nazis are seen heading out in force on a new kind of safari, hunting down and assaulting refugees and migrants, preferably young Africans, in Sweden, a country regarded as a paradigm of prosperity and openness, Europe has a duty to have a good think about what it represents – all of Europe, together, honestly and methodically, not alone, hypocritically and intermittently.

When in Germany, which has seen successive neo-Nazi attacks against refugee camps, the head of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party – polling at 13 percent – demands that refugees be stopped from entering the country by use of force if necessary, we should all be afraid. We should be afraid that not enough people in Europe would mind if Greece were to allow migrant boats to sink, as some of the harder cynics have suggested with a hint of blackmail, even though their problem would not be solved by 244 drowned in January alone.

When European states and regions are caught up in competing over who will further reduce the amount of money refugees are allowed to keep on them (from what wasn’t lost to the extortionate greed of people smugglers and thieves en route) and seize what’s left over so that the beleaguered Asians and African don’t get too comfortable, then “something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Denmark here extends to various parts of Europe: to Denmark proper, where the maximum “fortune” a refugee is allowed has been set at 1,340 euros, to Switzerland, where it’s 915 euros, Bavaria, 750 euros, and Baden-Wurttemberg, where it’s just 350 euros. Many already regard this as too much.

When in Italy noble merchants are selling “boy and girl refugee costumes” for the Carnival, then every European, not just the Italians, ought to wonder how much longer we will allow our masks to present us as sympathetic champions of a culture that is about solidarity and hospitality.

When countries of the European Union intervene in a non-member state (our neighbor the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) wielding a whip in one hand and a carrot of monetary reward and diplomatic support in the other in order to force it to control the flow of migrants and refugees to Northern Europe at the pace the north sees fit, then many of the principles touted as being inviolate in the EU are exposed as a myth: solidarity between partners and avoidance of unilateral decisions and intervention in third countries.

What solidarity is there to talk about when instead of admitting that the refugee crisis is a huge added weight on the exhausted shoulders of Greece and, looking for ways to ease the burden, many Europeans are using it as another opportunity to blackmail the country? Even if Greece has delayed in setting up “hot spots,” who gave the tough guys of Europe the moral authority to threaten it with drowning?

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