European patriots meet in Koblenz

[Crumpets]

I can never understand why hard-core nationalists tend to get along better and strategize better than their liberal and social democratic counterparts. Shouldn't all these meetings break down into "we're awesome and you guys suck," the international motto of nationalist movements, immediately? It's almost as if the far-right is more concerned about race than being manipulated by foreign powers. I know, crazy talk.

[Crumpets]

I can never understand why hard-core nationalists tend to get along better and strategize better than their liberal and social democratic counterparts. Shouldn't all these meetings break down into "we're awesome and you guys suck," the international motto of nationalist movements, immediately? It's almost as if the far-right is more concerned about race than being manipulated by foreign powers. I know, crazy talk.

Why? Nationalism nowadays isn't about "we're better than you guys", it's about the sovereignty of nation states in times when "globalism" prevails. If Brexit happens, that makes the EU weaker and all nation states in the EU stronger. If Trump wins, that means the U.S. government won't push for more EU integration, mass immigration in the EU, and power to the UN. If Le Pen becomes the French president, that means other countries will be freer in saying "no" to EU demands on all sorts of issues. It makes sense for European nationalists to cooperate in order to make that happen. All this can pretty easily be explained on the basis of interests instead of "race".

Why would anybody argue sovereign power of a nation state is superior to EU-ism for any other reason than that they think their nation is "better" on average than it's counterparts?