I Need Help

[Middle-aged Europe]

What about neo-nazism in Germany, and other nationalist groups and movements.  What about anti-Turkish sentiment in Germany, as well.  Anything concrete you can give me there?

Also, anything about your governments attemps to ignore, or play-down the problem?

As Lewis always pointed out, the Germans don´t care very much about the EU constitution. Most Germans probably don´t even know that this constution exists. And I´m not sure wether this would be much different with a national referendum on the consitution. Generally, the German population seems to be more interested how the British yellow press labels "our" new pope. :rollseyes: So, it isn´t exactly a hot button issue.

I also concur that the position of the CDU is somewhat schizophrenic: they are (or were) in favor of a national referendum on the EU constitution, but are generally opposing referanda on national level. I think in the case of the SPD it´s just the opposite, which makes a bit more sense... but only slightly.

All the parties in the Bundestag are supporting the EU constitution with the aforementioned semi-exception of the CDU/CSU. They´re getting a bit more critical of the constitution when a election is near, but it had never any substantial effect on their actual policies. I think the only "major" political party in opposition to the constitution is the PDS, probably for the same reasons some French leftists oppose the consitution (EU = too "capitalist", too "militarist" etc.).

The ultra right-wing parties are of course opposing the EU constitution. Not that it would matter much. In the last elections to the European parliament the REP got 1.9% and the NPD 0.9% of the vote. The DVU didn´t run.

About your question of "anti-Turkish sentiment"... there isn´t any anti-Turkish sentiment, only anti-immigrant sentiment. You´re not saying: "I hate Turks, but LOVE the Libanese, Morrocans, Vietnamese, Ukrainians etc.". Either you´re for or against immigration... or you simply don´t care. But I never heard of "anti-Turkish sentiment".

The admittance of Turkey is a different matter (probably you meant this). CDU/CSU are oppposing a EU membership of Turkey (at least since they´re in opposition, until 1998 they were strong supporters of it), SPD and Greens are in favor. I guess the FDP is somewhat neutral, but compared to the stance of the CDU/CSU they appear as a "pro-Turkey" party.

[Middle-aged Europe]

No, that is not the point of my paper.  The point is to analys nationalism in Europe and I intend to prove that the EU is not only not ending nationalism, but acctually taking it to new hieghts that have not been seen since the start of the Cold War.

Well, I don´t think that´s not the case in Germany. We don´t have any political parties who are specifically "euro-sceptic" like the UKIP in Britain. And as I already mentioned the right-wing extremists got a combined vote of 2.8% (1.9% + 0.9%) in the last elections to the European Parliament.

So, the real interesting question would be why some countries (United Kingdom, Sweden etc.) have strong anti-EU movements, while others (Germany, Spain etc.) don´t.


EDIT:

I found some poll numbers for the EU from late 2002.

"European and national identity":
--> 38% of all EU citizens saw themselves as members of their respective nation only
--> 49% saw themselves as members of their respective nation as well as Europeans
--> 7% saw themselves as Europeans as well as members of their respective nation
--> 3% saw themselves as "Europeans only"

Membership in the EU:
--> 55% said that the membership of their respective nation is a "good thing"
--> 10% said that the membership of their nation in the EU is a "bad thing"
--> the remaining 35% answered with "don´t know"

Did the membership in the EU bring more advantages or disadvantages?:
--> 27% said that the membership in the EU had brought their country more advantages than disadvantages
--> 15% said that the membership in the EU had brought their country more disadvantages than advantages
--> 46% said the the membership in the EU had equally brought advantages and disdvantages for their country

Huge surprise: The Britains gave by far the most euro-sceptic answers to all three questions.


In comparison the German answers only:

European and national identity
"German only": 37%
"German and European": 47%
"European and German": 10%
"European only": 3%

EU membership
"good thing": 59%
"bad thing": 6%
"don´t know": 35%

advantages/disdvantages
"more advantages": 30%
"more disdvantages": 15%
"equally advantages and disdvantages": 44%

[Middle-aged Europe]

A newly published poll seems to indicate that the Germans aren´t nearly as apathetic about the EU constitution as I suspected.

See here:
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=16513.75