Bosnian scholar Nerzuk Curak: The world is entering the age of post-fascism

“The new American administration is a path to hell for our world,” said Curak, adding that Europe “is becoming dangerously militarized, turning into a fortress of fear, while liberal democracy is collapsing from within.”

Commenting on statements by Steve Bannon that Donald Trump is “an instrument of God’s will”, Curak said such theological-political rhetoric recalls of dangerous historical patterns.

“Yes, it does remind me of that”, he said. “A new, what we might call theological-political elite, has emerged – one that seeks to build a new world on the premise of a divinely chosen will.”

Curak warned that millions of people are accepting these new forms of the fascisization of social consciousness.

The rise of post-fascism

According to Curak, today’s world is shaped by a new ideology, the one that he described as post-fascism.

“We are dominated by an idea that is aptly named post-fascism, because it is not the fascism we knew in the 1930s, but it has its variations and mutations that create a certain ideological continuity with historical fascism”, he explained.

He said that this new form of fascism lacks deep ideological roots and is instead based “solely on the notion of a self-proclaimed divine will.”

Referring to contemporary politics, Curak said that liberal democracy is in deep crisis.

“Liberal democracy has, at this moment, died – liberal democracy with its key positive values”, he noted. “Within the crumbling fortress of liberal democracy, we are witnessing a process in which it is transforming into neoliberal hegemony.”

Europe as a fortress of fear

Professor Curak also warned of growing militarization within the European Union.

He questioned whether the European Union still represents a project of peace.

“Does the EU still make sense if borders are being reintroduced and walls rebuilt?” he asked. “That is no longer the European Union of values, but rather a militarized fortress of united nationalist sovereignties.”

A call for new leadership

Curak argued that Europe needs a profound political and intellectual renewal.

“A great revolution – political, cultural, and intellectual – is necessary,” he said. “When Schuman and Adenauer made the seemingly impossible decision to form an alliance and set the foundation for the EU as a peace project, that was visionary. We need such people again.”

He concluded with a warning about the growing normalization of extremist forces.

“If mainstream centrist parties begin forming coalitions with such forces, fascism will have conquered liberal democracy from within,” Curak said. “We are one step away from that world.”