Conspiracies about the European Union

Since all conspiracy theories tend to focus on powerful elites that work against the interests of the common people, in the case of a political entity as powerful as the EU, it is almost inevitable that groups of citizens see an overreaching conspiracy behind the unification project. From early on in this process of European integration, some have suspected conspiracies involving powerful groups (the Bilderberg group) or individual ‘globalists’ (like George Soros; see Langer in this volume). One widespread conspiracy belief is the so-called Kalergi-Plan (see the introduction to this volume). Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, who had Austrian, Czechoslovakian and French citizenship, believed that after two devastating world wars, European nation-states would move towards a continental-wide federation, much like the United States (which he believed would merge with the other Americas). In addition, he believed that humanity would evolve into a single race. Needless to say, this vision is seen by conspiracy believers as an attempt by ‘internationalist elites’ to wipe out European cultures and nations. Kalergi’s vision of a united Europe can easily be seen as an early version of the ‘Great Replacement’ theory, which assumes that the original European population is replaced by, or even transformed into, an Arab Europe (‘Eurabia’, see Bergmann, Gualda and Onnerfors in this volume).

This new United States of Europe is - in the minds of conspiracy believers - part of the New World Order, into which anti-Semitic elements are often incorporated by referring to Jewish billionaire George Soros and banks like Goldman Sachs. Nigel Farage once argued in an interview that these two are the biggest threat to the Western World and are working towards taking down our national democratic systems. Another recurring theme in anti-EU conspiracies is the (secret) formation of a European army, often combined with the suggestion that all European citizens would be forced to serve under the EU flag (Maddox, 2016). Another target of anti-Semitic conspiracies is the Rothschild family, who have - in the eyes of conspiracy believers - been closely involved in powerbrokering in European countries since the Napoleonic Wars. The Rothschilds are alleged as directly choosing and appointing heads of states and governments, with Emmanuel Macron (who worked at the Rothschild Bank) as the latest example of the power of this family (Southfront, 2017).

Donald Trump has floated his own conspiracy theory about the EU, suggesting it is merely set up to ‘take advantage of the USA’. While admittedly the unification into one European market does create a global competitor of the US, and the US has a trade deficit with the EU, its origin was encouraged by the US’s post-war political establishment. In fact, all other post-war US presidents have been fervent proponents of closer European economic and political collaboration. Another theory that suspects economic power-play by elites in constructing a united Europe puts forward that it takes power away from national governments to establish a welfare state and provide economic protection. While the ‘alt-right’ sees the EU as working for a leftist and progressive cultural elite, left-leaning Eurosceptics see in the EU a conspiracy of bankers and industrialists to undermine wages and welfare. The alt-right version of the ‘EU deep state’ is professed by people like Steve Bannon - former Trump Chief White House Advisor - and his organisation ‘The Movement’ that aims to unite rightwing conservative anti-EU forces (Like Orban, Farage, Salvini, Wilders, Le Pen, Ekeroth and even Putin) into a counterforce to Soros’ Open Society Foundation (Hines, 2018). The left-wing version of the deep state focuses on the austerity forced upon the European South by bankers, the IMF, The European Central Bank and - in particular - Germany or possibly even chancellor Merkel herself (see Tsotsou in this volume). In sum, conspiracy theories about the EU are ample across the ideological spectrum. Given that ideological extremists are most prone to opposing the EU and believing in conspiracies, we expect that there is a link between conspiracy belief and Euroscepticism - a heavily understudied topic.