21 augustus 2021
Sometimes the statement is made that politics is nowadays moving to the right, that public opinion is adopting opinions which were considered 20 years ago to be rightist or even extreme rightist. In that context specially reference is made to two different themes: (1) discussions on migration and citizenship; (2) deconstruction of the state and the privatisation of a lot of the public services.
I believe that this statement is only correct for 50%. With respect to the 1st theme, the statement is overall correct. Of course we can question how extreme “leftist” and naive public opinion once has been with respect to migration and citizenship.
Also with respect to the first theme we should take into account that we come from a period in which government instutions and corporations were highly inefficient. But, overall people are NOT of the opinion that the government should be abolished or should be “minimal”. Overall people want an efficient government and reject waste.
Further, public opinion expect governments to be able to intervene in emergency situations, be it of a financial or economic nature (saving banks and restarting the economy), an epidemiological threat (Covid- organizing vaccinations), a natural disaster event, or geopolitical tensions (evacuating citizens from Afghanistan). The state is currently deemed to be very important.