Germany's Anti-Islam
Movement Spawns Anti-American Offshoot (Barbadillo,
Italy)
"Born out
of a group of local Pegida supporters, the movement began with a large
demonstration of about 1,000 people on January 24 and within a few days had
already collected over 20,000 Facebook likes. At the center of the protests is the
'Americanization' of Germany, not only culturally and linguistically, but socially
and economically, with slogans directed against a Merkel government judged guilty
for going ahead with negotiations to sign the Trans-Atlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership, legislation
that provides for mass privatization and great legal advantages for the Stars
and Stripes multinationals settled on the old continent."
There are many facts worth noting that occur beyond our
borders and are often ignored by Italian media. Among then we can certainly include
the birth of the German movement Pegada.
The acronym in German stands for “European Patriots Against
the Americanization of the West.” The group is in the same vein as the Pegida movement, which organized
spectacular protests against the Islamization of Germany and got into trouble for
a photo in which its founder, Lutz Bachmann, mimicked
Adolf Hitler.
But if the anti-Islam protests, however spectacular, are not
really a novelty, in the case of Pegada we are dealing with a completely
different phenomenon.
The Ideas of Pegada
Born out of a group of local Pegida supporters, the movement
began with a large demonstration of about 1,000 people in the town square at
Erfurt on January 24 (videos, upper right) and within a few days had already collected over 20,000
Facebook likes. At the center of the protests is the "Americanization"
of Germany, not only culturally and linguistically, but socially and economically,
with slogans directed against the Merkel government judged guilty for going
ahead with negotiations to sign the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trade in
Services Agreement (TISA): legislation that provides for mass privatization
and great legal advantages for Stars and Stripes multinationals settled on
the old continent.
A 2005 German carnival float
being frequently Tweeted by members
of European Patriots Against Americanization of the
West - Pegada.
And this is what's novel: an all-encompassing criticism of
the “colonial” imposition of a culture - the Anglo-American - judged incompatible
with that of Europeans. It is a culture from overseas, characterized socio-culturally
by multiculturalism and an accentuated liberalism, seasoned economically by massive
trade liberalization. These tensions are a poor match for a European tradition that
tends to be characterized by a strong identity built up over centuries and a social
market economic model in which solidarity, a legacy of Christian tradition, had
great influence in determining the structure of welfare.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
So then, because it has emerged in Germany - land where the
affirmation of identity always suffers a sort of “original sin” syndrome, as if
identity is a sin to be a priori
expiated - a movement like Pegada is significant especially in light of the
changed geopolitical context. It is a context in which Europeans are obviously
and increasingly tempted (at the level of the people rather than the elite) to
turn toward their own identity, rather than toward its traditional ally
overseas - an ally which, after having imposed its military bases, has begun to
impose its own traditions.
