Weimarisation of the European Public Space

Abstract

In the interwar period, democracy, centrism and political self-moderation failed especially in Germany under the pressure of totalist values brought forth by the extremes of Nazism and Communism. The Republic of Weimar, despite its good promises and expectations, crashed under the joint actions of the exceptionalists of the day, Hitler and Stalin, and the world experienced the losses, destructions and horrors of a second global war. Riden by the current lot of autocratic charismatics, the new wave of Weimarisation tends to engulf the EU in a struggle for survival. The bitter lesson of WWII was that democracy is given a chance only after the systemic failures of offensive war. In order to Make Europe Good Again, the EU citizens do not need MEGA solutions promised by illiberalism but a comeback to commitment and respect for peaceful resolution of differences.