argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Analysis
The ghost of Kurt Waldheim in the European Parliament
  • Two big, ugly claws look at the colorful result maps of the European elections. Italy from Salvini, France from Le Pen. The phalanges of two long claws, which want to strangle the neck of the European Union, cannot. “They haven’t done it,” several voices say with kindness. The picture, judging from the surveys, seemed worse. It may be true that the neo-fascist parties have risen, but not enough to condition the European Parliament. Are we safe?
Gorka Bereziartua Mitxelena @gorka_bm 2019ko maiatzaren 27a
Kurt Waldheim Austriako presidente ohia, Ruth Beckermannen dokumentaleko irudi batean.

If there are claws in the account, you have to remember those of Kurt Waldheim before you start throwing calm messages. 1986, about to start the Austrian election campaign, the scandal in the press: according to Waldheim, former UN Secretary-General and candidate for the Conservative Party, travelled with the Nazis in World War II. During the World War.

"He was a forced soldier," says Waldheim, and after being injured on the front he did not do much, he adds. But the papers say something else: from a young man in favour of socialist nationalists, in 1942 responsible for the mass of the partisans of Kozara (Yugoslavia), in 1943 deporting thousands of Jews from Thessaloniki (Greece). Dark, dirty, ugly objects, smelling professional assassin. Director Ruth Beckermann echoed last year’s documentary Waldheims Walzer, which was recently released at the Berlin Festival in Tabakalera. In this work we hear the reaction of Austrian society to the scandal: despite knowing it, he was elected president.

History is very topical, because in addition to showing the reappearance of the past that has not yet been cleaned up in Europe, it is the story of wolves dressed in sheepskin. Nominalki Waldheim was neither a fascist party nor a former Nazi, but he was president of Austria with the blessing of thousands of citizens, until 1992. How many electorate are now going to Brussels embracing democracy to make policies as aggressive as the extreme right? The claws of Salvini and Le Pen are ugly. Many of the European Union’s concrete measures are not much nicer, even if they are carried out by white label parties.