The massacre in Nice is unprecedented and incomprehensible.
The conception and execution of the plan to eliminate so many innocent people with a crazy truck goes beyond the sickest of fantasies.
The night after it was Turkey’s turn to cause concern to the entire world.
As it turns out the threat is asymmetrical, out of control and capable of striking anyone and anywhere, even when one is joyfully relaxing and having fun.
Europe is facing its greatest threat since the Second World War.
It is faced with a wave of blind violence which affects and attacks the core values of Western civilization.
Terror is entrenching itself in the Old Continent, suspicion is increasing, free will is being stifled and almost automatically fueling for everything foreign, migrant and different. This is turn will result in isolation and eventually fascism.
In many European countries the political consequences of the chain reactions which are fueling the terrorist network are already being documented.
The Brexit was nothing more than the end result this wave of xenophobia. But it is not just the United Kingdom.
Everyone in Berlin can sense the rise of the far right “Alternative for Germany”, the first such party to enter the German Parliament since WWII.
In Vienna they are also trying to come to terms with the idea that the head of the far right party may possibly be running their country. Even in France Marine Le Pen, with her anti-European plans, is lurking.
In the Netherlands the far right is gaining ground, while elsewhere, due to a series of factors and circumstances, everyone is forgetting and even pardoning the far right about the crimes it committed in WWII.
Even in Greece, where Nazism left behind hundreds of thousands of dead, a similar political party has emerged, based on populist propaganda of homeland mongering xenophobia.
The question that remains to be answered is whether Europe can overcome such a problematic and perpetual circle of violence and xenophobic isolationism.
The common belief is that the phenomenon and consequent unfortunate developments are a result of the prevailing – in recent years – imbalance in the world.
A combination of events and circumstances – born from the war in Iraq, the geopolitical shifts in the broader Middle East and the proliferation of international interests, due to globalization – has dramatically shifted the balance in the post-war world and opened a can of worms, which has brought back nationalist, political and religious groups in the troubled Middle East.
The aforementioned, in conjunction with the internal social changes caused by the liberalization of economic forces in the metropolises of the West, have allowed preachers of hatred and restoring the Islamic caliphate to establish secret war bases in Europe, which are activated each time the caliphate is pressured and threatened with extinction.
Nothing however guarantees that the perpetuation and development of the phenomenon. Europe and the West as a whole have an obligation to at least control the other factors that fuel the economic and social imbalances. The world is in need of a new agreement that will distribute wealth among the nations and people in a more just way and allow greater opportunities for progress and prosperity. That is the only way to win the war against fear and the subsequent isolationism.
Antonis Karakousis
Originally published in the Sunday print edition
