European Culture War

The culture war or culture conflict refers to the conflict between traditionalist or conservative values and social democracy, progressive or social liberal values in the Western world, as well as other countries. Europe in the recent times has been facing the culture wars as people are coming forward against the traditional conservative order. Culture has been a political tool in the West since time immemorial and leaders have used it for their political gains.

In the European political scenario, there is widespread prevalence of cultural conflict, be it against Austria’s hard hitting immigration policies for fighting political Islam or the recent Brexit. People voted for the British exit from the European Union in order to express their discontent on the prevailing immigration policies that allowed Eastern Europeans to migrate to the UK. Even in Germany, political parties are avoiding to form a coalition with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU). These examples show that indeed a cultural war is taking place in Europe and citizens are voting the leadership on basis of social solidarity and welfare. The Europeans are also revolting against the pressures of globalization in order to retain the good old system. They want the immigrants coming to their country to pay higher taxes to contribute to this welfare. The culture war in Europe is a simple social urge to create a cohesive society where a poor and unintelligent person also enjoys certain inalienable rights.

Therefore, these cultural wars are shaping the future of the European politics if aforementioned examples are taken into consideration. The political parties are gradually shifting the focus towards protecting the culture of the state as well as increasing the welfare benefits for the people or else they may face a major loss as people are coming forward to break the old chains of conservatism and to create a new social order on the basis of welfare for all.