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Anthony Zacharzewski
@anthonyzach.be
Working to make European democracy work. "Refreshingly free of the usual platitudes". Belge par choix, Brits door opvoeding. President of Demsoc.org
2k followers2.3k following2.4k posts
AZanthonyzach.be

I hadn’t heard the term “welfare chauvinism” before but it sums up the new Flemish government’s approach of “Flemish people first” for benefits. As Bart Eeckhout says, this is unsupported by evidence and does the far right’s job for them. www.demorgen.be/nieuws/hoe-d... (translation in ALT)

This is how the governing parties want to silence the siren song of the far right. It’s more likely though that they will have the opposite effect. Because the government is legitimising not just anxiety among citizens but also the new central point of the far right’s programme: it’s ok to want to get rid of foreigners, it’s not because they are foreign but because they are weighing down our education, social security and housing markets (which they are not). It is just this toxic and deceitful alignment of xenophobia and concern for socioeconomic decline that is currently putting so much wind in the sails of the far right all across Europe.
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AZ
Anthony Zacharzewski
@anthonyzach.be
Working to make European democracy work. "Refreshingly free of the usual platitudes". Belge par choix, Brits door opvoeding. President of Demsoc.org
2k followers2.3k following2.4k posts
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