Lawfare and the Future of Europe

Europe’s elites use courts to block change but the tide is turning.

Kenneth Schmidt argues that Europe’s liberal elites are using lawfare to suppress populist leaders — most recently in the Czech Republic — yet believes the right will endure and rise.

In recent months, we have seen many examples of the legal system being used to keep nationalists and national-conservatives out of power in Europe. The successful derailing of the presidential candidacy of Călin Georgescu in Romania by that nation’s court system was a gross injustice, as were dubious legal proceedings against National Rally leader Marine Le Pen in France. Alternative for Germany (AfD) is under constant pressure from the courts as well as the prospect of being banned as a political party by the Bundestag (German parliament).

Parliamentary elections are coming up in the Czech Republic on October 3, and the mildly populist former prime minister Andrej Babiš is doing very well in the polls. Now, almost as a matter of course, lawfare is being waged against him in order to sideline his campaign, and the courts are cooperating. Back in 2008, charges were leveled at Babiš that he received a 2-million-euro subsidy by withholding documents showing that he owned a farm and resort known as “The Stork’s Nest.” Babiš was acquitted twice, but the Prague High Court wants to take a third try at convicting him. On June 23, his previous acquittal was thrown out and charges reinstated.

Truth be told, Andrej Babiš is hardly a member of the “edgy right.” He is just a center-right figure that takes an anti-immigration stand. One might think of him as a kind of Czech Nigel Farage — an anti-immigration liberal. Still, dissenting on just one plank of the liberal platform means that the European establishment will use fair means or foul to destroy you. The Czechs are an interesting people — Slavic by blood but culturally and politically Western European and thus quite liberal. This was demonstrated quite well by the breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1993, as the Slovaks are more religious and culturally conservative. Babiš is about as right-wing as a large portion of the populace can go.

Call me a sunny optimist, but I think the European right will transcend this sad era of cheating and abuse of the law by the European establishment to sideline political change. Liberalism, especially in its current form, has lost the ability to solve real human problems.

In a lot of ways, both center-right and center-left parties in most European countries are essentially identical in their programs. The normie left has made peace with capitalism in a similar manner to the Democratic Party in the US, which has been tightly wedded to Wall Street since the Clinton era. Their answer to the problems of European life is technocratic rule. The allegedly brainy “experts” have misruled the continent by not facing problems squarely in a pragmatic way and have relied on ideology rather than real expertise. When the center-left sold out its ideals, many real leftists fled to the Greens.

However, the Greens committed political suicide by becoming anti-farmer in places as different as the Netherlands and Poland. They will continue to do poorly in elections because all they promise for the future is scarcity and want caused by high energy prices. Although they were evil men, Lenin and Stalin weren’t entirely stupid. They were obsessed with rural electrification because they knew that cheap energy would be popular with the people, thus cementing their rule. The Greens want to reverse that and make everyone poor by closing down coal and nuclear plants. They have no positive vision for the future and their parties are declining. No wonder Greta Thunberg is focusing on Palestine; nobody wants to hear her environmental rants anymore! The only large country in Europe with a viable far left is France in the person of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and he will fight it out with National Rally for the future of that country once the unpopular Macron is out of the way.

Liberal parties like the Free Democrats in Germany and NEOS in Austria are in decline. With the internationalization of the corporate world, capitalism in its pure form has little appeal. The populist-nationalist parties are eating their lunch.

The main reason for the “vibe shift” both in the US and Europe is that the liberal enterprise, both left-liberal and right-liberal, has failed. The far left has limited appeal. My only humble advice to my European friends is to hold on during this time of persecution when the court systems are being used to block their paths to power. The people are increasingly on your side. The most important thing to realize is that idealistic European youth will continue to head your way. The European political establishment is desperate and “lawfare” is the last tool in their bag of tricks. The cordon sanitaire will eventually be breached. Stay the course.