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European democracies are running out of time to turn away from the abyss | Rafael Behr

Far-right parties, Maga ideology and Kremlin money are conniving to suffocate liberal idealism for another generation Not all that long ago, Europe was a beacon of liberal idealism. One memoir recalls it as an era “comfortably saturated with confidence in the unfailing and binding power of tolerance and conciliation”. The economic system seemed obviously preferable to barbarous alternatives. “People honestly believed that the divergencies and the boundaries between nations and sects would gradually melt away into a common humanity,” the author added. Those words could describe the spirit of globalisation at the turn of the millennium. They were written in the 1930s by Stefan Zweig , reflecting on the optimism of late 19th-century Vienna from the perspective of a Jewish émigr é whose world had been destroyed by murderous nationalism. Zweig took his own life in 1942. He never saw fascism d

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Far-right parties, Maga ideology and Kremlin money are conniving to suffocate liberal idealism for another generation Not all that long ago, Europe was a beacon of liberal idealism. One memoir recalls it as an era “comfortably saturated with confidence in the unfailing and binding power of tolerance and conciliation”. The economic system seemed obviously preferable to barbarous alternatives. “People honestly believed that the divergencies and the boundaries between nations and sects would gradually melt away into a common humanity,” the author added. Those words could describe the spirit of globalisation at the turn of the millennium. They were written in the 1930s by Stefan Zweig , reflecting on the optimism of late 19th-century Vienna from the perspective of a Jewish émigr é whose world had been destroyed by murderous nationalism. Zweig took his own life in 1942. He never saw fascism d

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According to The Guardian’s source item, European democracies are running out of time to turn away from the abyss | Rafael Behr, Far-right parties, Maga ideology and Kremlin money are conniving to suffocate liberal idealism for another generation Not all that long ago, Europe was a beacon of liberal idealism. One memoir recalls it as an era “comfortably saturated with confidence in the unfailing and binding power of tolerance and conciliation”. The economic system seemed obviously preferable to barbarous alternatives. “People honestly believed that the divergencies and the boundaries between nations and sects would gradually melt away into a common humanity,” the author added. Those words could describe the spirit of globalisation at the turn of the millennium. They were written in the 1930s by Stefan Zweig , reflecting on the optimism of late 19th-century Vienna from the perspective of a Jewish émigr é whose world had been destroyed by murderous nationalism. Zweig took his own life in 1942. He never saw fascism d

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The development sits in VINI’s Global file for readers following international affairs, institutions, conflict, diplomacy, economics, and cross-border consequences. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-09-09T05:00:01+00:00.

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Primary source: European democracies are running out of time to turn away from the abyss | Rafael Behr via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

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