The public vs the politicians

These are difficult times across Europe. From the endless iterations of the eurozone crisis to the Brexit negotiations beginning in earnest — these and many more challenges will face our continent for years to come. But underneath them all, lies a whole set of other ructions: subterranean events which lead to subterranean public concerns and subterranean public discussions.

Foremost among such deep rumblings are the anxieties of the European publics on matters to do with immigration, identity and Islam. These things are closely connected (so closely that I recently put them together in the subtitle of my book, The Strange Death of Europe), but they are unarguably stifled discussions. While politicians talk about immigration solely in terms of the benefits it brings — and clearly it does bring some — the public are understandably concerned that the downsides of migration are not merely ignored but actively covered up.

Some people say that we are ‘not allowed’ to talk about immigration; others, that we seem to always be talking about it. In fact both are true: we constantly have the same shallow conversations about the issues. These conversations do not address or satisfy people’s deep concerns — and at no point has this been clearer than in the wake of the 2015 migrant crisis, which may be off the front pages but which still continues.

All of this brings a problem of its own — one that has already led to some electoral shocks in recent years. Specifically, this is the widening gap between what the public thinks and what politicians allow themselves to say. One of the surest ways — if not the only way — to measure this gap is through opinion polls, such as the annual survey of EU citizens conducted by Project 28. And the latest found an array of significant facts.

For instance, even now, two years after the height of the migrant crisis, three-quarters of people across the EU think the organisation’s handling of it was ‘poor’.