Interview: Social media, fear of globalization boost populist parties in Europe -- former EU commissioner

European populist parties, with the help of social media, have effectively harnessed many people's uneasiness and fear about globalization, former EU Commissioner for Agriculture Franz Fischler told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Populist parties have managed to advance themselves mainly through simplifying matters, and giving a simplified answer and solution to current problems, said Fischler, who is also the president of the European Forum Alpbach, a non-profit association based in Vienna.

Their slogans sound favorable to a wide sub-section of voters, but they are actually wrong, Fischler said.

Populists are not concerned whether these slogans and proposals are practically impossible to be implemented, what they are concerned with is to seek out and stir the public's emotions and enthusiasm, he said.

Fischler admitted that populism is widespread to some extent, saying that if centrist European political parties claim they do not have populist elements, it is not true.

Populist parties themselves, with the help of and the use of populism, have proposed their own political strategy to achieve their purpose, Fischler said.

Compared with traditional political parties, populist parties, especially the right-wing ones, are more adept in using social media to spread their claims and attract more followers, he said.

For example, Heinz-Christian Strache, chairman of the Austrian right-wing populist Freedom Party, releases Facebook posts at a frequency about three times higher than that of Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, Fischler said.

In a recent survey of 15,000 people, Germany's Bertelsmann Foundation found that 45 percent of European Union citizens view globalization as a threat. As many as 55 percent of Austrians hold this view.

In addition, 25-30 percent of the European people have lost trust in the traditional ruling parties and governments, and turned to both right- and left-wing populists, he said.

These people do not believe that the government can solve current problems and challenges, oppose the existing political system as well as traditional parties, and subsequently shift their support toward populist parties, Fischler said.

In Fischler's view, globalization will continue. In a digital world, in the "Industrial 4.0" era, it is difficult to imagine a small nation-state based isolation. "A large part of our affluence comes from exports, and we benefit from globalization," he said, adding the question now is how to shape globalization rationally.

Fischler believed that the sustainability of the economic system is very important, saying that people can not accept uncontrolled and unregulated globalization, and rules of global scale are needed.

The basic tenets of such rules should incorporate the United Nations sustainable development agenda of 2030, which includes 17 sustainable development goals and 169 related specific objectives, he said.

Fischler said in future, non-compliance with, or violation of the rules of globalization, should be punished accordingly, otherwise the system could not be said to be fair.

Transparency is also very important, what a country or a society is doing or not doing must be clear, and the rule-making process for globalization must also be based on multilateral consultations, Fischler said. Endi