Playing Fascism in Europe

The European elections are over. Journalist friends in Brussels tell me that there is a nonsensical elation in EU circles. The happiness is because the far-right did not take over completely -- as if democracy is a game where winner takes all. 

I do not like party games, particularly board games. However, the other day at a friend’s house, a board game was brought to the table with such fanfare that declining seemed impolite. The game was called Secret Hitler. It is a party game about fascism that my German, French, and US American friends had been enjoying for a year. They explained the rules to me quickly, assuming I knew a lot about fascism because I had written a book about it. They did not mind that I had already lost that game back in Turkey – and lost it spectacularly when the stakes were high and quite real.  

The game’s rules: it starts with players choosing from closed envelopes that contain a party membership card. You are either a liberal or a fascist, and you are not allowed to know the other players’ political identity. One player receives the Hitler card and must keep it a secret. Before the game begins, everybody closes their eyes, and only fascists open theirs to see one another. In another round of closed eyes, the fascists make a hand sign to inform that the Hitler player knows who is on his team. From then on, it is a game of guessing and manipulation, the object being to pass more liberal or fascist laws to rule the country. If you pass enough laws, you eliminate the other team. As opposed to real life, fascists follow the rules, and there is clarity both in victory and defeat. 
I forced myself to play for a round but then I laid my party membership card open on the table, ruining the game for everyone. “This game makes no sense,” I said, “and I am not playing.” 

My fascist peers feigned despair, and the liberals moaned, “Oh, come on.” So I said it openly, “I am sorry but the game is built upon a historical misinterpretation: as if there were only liberals, and fascism comes when everybody’s eyes are open.” A friend stated the obvious, “Darling, you take it too seriously.” Well, I do because when adults make a game out of our lives, this game ends in total darkness. And today, Europe pretends not to remember that and plays along not wanting to be a spoilsport. 

The real-world European Parliament
The far right in the European Parliament has gained a prominent position, perhaps even as kingmaker. Pan-European far-right summits had already promised a united front in the political institution that will define Europe in the coming decade. As in the Secret Hitler game, they do not call themselves fascists but for adults with their eyes open, some characteristics are recognizable. I do not mean, for instance, the Mussolini salute of Giorgia Meloni. Italy’s prime minister and the leader of the Fratelli d’Italia party is, in her own words, “untroubled relation with fascism.” These serious steps are less of a spectacle when it comes to steering the European ship towards authoritarianism. 

No resistance
Yet, for those who need to see jack boots to spot the fascist, one thing should be clarified. Fascism uses brutal power only when there is an organized, solid resistance against it, and we do not have that today. Before the elections, Ursula Von Der Leyen’s warmly hugged Meloni. The latter is upping her game to lead a far-right Europe. This is only possible because a weak center no longer sticks to the principle of noncooperation with the far right. 

But then why not hug each other when the far-right’s dehumanization of foreigners is already shared by Brussels and London? Why not not collaborate when the far right’s disregard for human rights and its hatred for the left is shyly shared by the centrist politicos? Is there really a democracy to be protected against the far right after all when opinion polls show that trust in democracy is in pieces? But then, who really cares? In high-level, intellectual political circles such ideas circulate: Why is it so bad to consider the far-right as an ally? At this point, we know that a pledge to be united against Putin gives a free pass to political leaders to compromise democracy in their countries. And now the same compromise can be scaled up to the European level. Saving Europe means no longer fortifying democracies or the sacredness of human rights but protecting physical borders. That is a game in which all players are supposed to believe that liberals who are engaged in neoliberal politics can bring prosperity. 

Europe, despite all her sins beyond her borders, was once an inspiration for progressives around the world. One story is quite telling. In 1939, when the war was about to devour Europe, the composer Joaquin Rodrigo was composing his famous guitar concerto ”Concierto de Aranjuez.” When this work came out, World War II was in full rage. Many listened to the second sad part of the concerto as an elegy for Guernica. 

Years later, when Europe was rebuilding herself from scratch, in 1947, in the capital city of the Turkish Republic, Ankara, a boy was born. He was to grow up to be the most beloved revolutionary figure in his country, adding his name to the global leftist movement of the 1960s. Deniz Gezmiş, a tall, handsome young man, was only 25 when he was hanged by the military regime in 1972. Before going to the gallows, his last wish was to listen to Rodrigo's concerto for one last time. As he listened and smoked his last cigarette, Europe was preparing to eliminate the elements that made her unique and inspired many revolutionaries worldwide, like Deniz Gezmiş. However, by then those who fought against fascism before the war, communists and socialists, were already written out of European history – as in Secret Hitler. The new neoliberal order eventually embraced the gradual deterioration of liberté, égalité, fraternité, which contributed to the production of several Guernicas. They do not have a concerto as an elegy for they are outside the borders of Europe, and their names are Baghdad, Kabul, Damascus, and Gaza. 

Europe, from Aristoteles to Rosa Luxemburg or from Voltaire to Karl Marx, has provided political and cultural bearings to those who lived in Asia and Africa. On those continents, secular and progressive movements were enchanted by the Enlightenment and criticized Europe from an anti-colonial perspective. Generations grew up reading Montaigne, savoring Mozart, and reading the transcripts of the First International while resisting imperialism. For decades, when they were about to be imprisoned or tortured by the oppressive regimes in their countries, they found refuge in European cities. At the beginning of the 21st century, their grandsons and granddaughters filled the city squares in Tahrir, al Kasbah in Tunis, and Gezi Park in Istanbul, shouting out the French Revolution’s central concepts, once the moral and political compass of Europe: freedom, justice, equality, and dignity. However, now they watch the continent’s unravelling with mixed feelings – a bit of schadenfreude and genuine sadness. What is most surprising for them is that it happens the same way that it happened to them -- like a game where players close their eyes to pretend, they do not know. 

As Europe leaves behind her image as the haven for the world’s progressives, the future looks dark, as dark as hugging the wrong person and getting strangled just because you believe this a game played with eyes closed and that you were playing together.