Europe’s Prolonged Financial Crisis Has Created A Crisis Of Values

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NEW YORK – Xenophobia and extremism are symptoms of societies in profound crisis. In 2012, the far-right Golden Dawn won 21 seats in Greece’s parliamentary election, the right-wing Jobbik gained ground in my native Hungary, and the National Front’s Marine Le Pen received strong backing in France’s presidential election. Growing support for similar forces across Europe points to an inescapable conclusion: the continent’s prolonged financial crisis is creating a crisis of values that is now threatening the European Union itself.

When it was only an aspiration, the European Union was an immensely attractive idea that fired many people’s imagination, including mine. I regarded it as the embodiment of an open society – a voluntary association of sovereign states that were willing to give up part of their sovereignty for the common good. They shared a common history, in which the French Revolution, with its slogan of liberty, equality, and fraternity, left a lasting legacy. Building on that tradition, member states formed a union based on equality and not dominated by any state or nationality.

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