From Manhattan to Ceuta

Twenty-five years have passed since that fateful date; the scenarios are different, but the perplexity persists and grows. On September 11, 2001, we abruptly discovered two things: that there is no rearguard when fanaticism prevails and that the end of history was merely a mirage built by an enthusiastic idealism. From the images of the destroyed Twin Towers, we have moved to the images of migrants entering Ceuta, driven by planned rumors and great despair. A quarter of a century has passed between the two news events, and we have exchanged the decapitated ingenuities of the end of the Cold War for the saturated incredulities of the new hybrid wars. This August, with our eyes set on the Spanish city in North Africa, we have also discovered two things: borders can be very precarious and a peculiar explosive mix of cynicism, irresponsibility, and fanaticism has colonized politics, especially in the international sphere. When we saw the first plane crash into Manhattan, we thought, during the initial minutes, that all of it was not entirely real but rather a movie; when we saw the flood of people entering Ceuta, we did not doubt the certainty of the event, even though fake and real images are mixed on social media. The world became more insecure in 2001; now it has become more chaotic, indecipherable, and explosive. Beyond the facts, there are the inertias that now dominate the public sphere of developed societies: fear, distrust, unhealthy nostalgia, and disinterest in the truth. And, above all, the rejection of politics, which a part of the citizenry considers “a problem.” In this theater, the predatory leaderships of figures like Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu obtain the admiration and adherence of those who demand “immediate changes” and “effective solutions.” These are leaderships that offer a plausible refuge at a price that many citizens are willing to pay: militarized security in exchange for sidelining rights, freedoms, empathy, and compassion. Behold the banner—hardly original—of those who want to bury the world that emerged in 1945.

Conventional politics –captured by narrative gurus who only think about the electoral mission– flounders in the face of the real and prefabricated malaise of societies faced with long-term challenges, which are interpreted in binary and agonistic terms of loss and threat. Neglected conventional politics is the deficient management that Pedro Sánchez's government is carrying out regarding the Ceuta crisis, let it be said for the record. Today everything is about "existential challenges", everything puts "our way of life" at risk. An example: the unease that the emergence of AI and digital transformation cause in millions of workers is far greater than the well-intentioned sermons about a future with fewer humans doing things that give meaning to their lives and for which they receive a salary. Faced with this, classic parties spread palliative narratives that sound like poor excuses. The forces of the new reaction, on the other hand, carry a chainsaw in their hand that sends a promise message as drastic as it is attractive. The punch fascinates with its simplicity. From Manhattan to Ceuta, passing through Gaza and Saxony-Anhalt. The electoral success of the AfD party in this German state shows that the wave is strong, even though a few months ago, in Hungary, it seemed the ultra-right decline was beginning. This triumph sets off all alarms within the EU and has significance everywhere. One only needs to see the congratulations from Vox and Aliança Catalana. Alice Weidel's anti-European discourse is perfectly connected with the vision that the Trump administration has of the Old Continent. According to the US National Security Strategy, far-right “patriotic parties” are the only true defenders of Europe. This document speaks of a future in which the majority of Europeans “will not be European” and blames immigration for the rupture of the Western bond. That is why supporters of Trumpism, led by Elon Musk, take advantage of the terrible images from Ceuta. Now they have the shocking scene that evokes the dystopia with which they aspire to fill the ballot boxes and govern. The far-right populist agenda does not just aim to change one set of policies for another; it has a more ambitious goal: to destroy one world to build another (based on the law of the strongest and exclusion), with hammer blows if necessary. That is why it is suicide for the democratic right to walk hand in hand with figures like Meloni, Le Pen, Farage, Abascal, or Orriols. There will be no turning back from this journey. And that is also why left-wing parties are wrong when they think that by announcing more social policies they will be able to stop this siege and hollowing out of democracy. The way the new ultra parties operate is like drugs that provide security and clarity while making people forget the anxieties of living. That is why they must be defeated on a slippery, fragile, and gray terrain, closer to dreams than to public budgets.