The inverted postnational constellation: Identitarian populism in context

• Date: 01 September 2019
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• Author: Azar Dakwar,Albena Azmanova
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/eulj.12342

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

The inverted postnational constellation:

Identitarian populism in context

Albena Azmanova* | Azar Dakwar*

Abstract

As exemplified by the pan-European ‘Identitarian movement’(IM), contemporary far-right populism

defies the habitual matrix within which right-wing radicalism has been criticised as a negation of lib-

eral cosmopolitanism. The IM's political stance amalgamates features of cultural liberalism and racial-

ist xenophobia into a defence of ‘European way of life.’We offer an alternative decoding of the

phenomenon by drawing on Jürgen Habermas's ‘postnational constellation.’It casts the IM's protec-

tionist qua chauvinistic populism as ‘inverted’postnationalism, engendered through territorial and

ethnic appropriation of universal political values. As such, inclusionary ideals of cosmopolitan liberal-

ism and democracy purporting humanistic postnationalism have been transformed by Identitarians

into elements of a privileged civilisational life-style to be protected from ‘intruders.’Remaining

within the remit of the grammar of the postnational constellation, trans-European chauvinism, we

contend, is susceptible to inclusive articulation. Foregrounding radical emancipatory social transfor-

mation would however require not more democracy, but a principled critique of capitalism.

1|INTRODUCTION

The most recent populist insurrections have not only posed a challenge to the centrist political establishment in

Western liberal democracies, they have called into question the very left–right divide that has structured the

ideological landscape of these societies for the past two centuries. Far-right anti-establishment formations (such

as the French Front national and the Dutch Partij voor de Vrijheid) typically marry an allegiance to liberal values

(from freedom of speech to gender equality and LGBT rights) with appeals for social, economic, cultural and phys-

ical safety.

1

The pan-European Identitarian movement (IM), which emerged in the 1960s and has found a fresh

resurgence in the early twenty-first century as the “hipster right”, incarnates these peculiarities of contemporary

Western populism.

Originally springing up in France and Italy, Identitarians are an increasingly influential exponent in recent

ethnocultural transnational right-wing populism which has pervaded, in diverse forms, the entirety of the European

*

Brussels School of International Studies, University of Kent, Brussels, Belgium

1

A. Azmanova, ‘After the Left–Right (Dis)continuum: Globalization and the Remaking of Europe's Ideological Geography’(2011) 5 International Political

Sociology, 384.

Received: 3 September 2019 Revised: 16 September 2019 Accepted: 16 September 2019

DOI: 10.1111/eulj.12342

494 © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Eur Law J. 2019;25:494–501.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/eulj