The Impact of EU-based Populism on Turkey-EU Relations

ABSTRACT

The May 2019 EP elections once again highlighted the current cultural backlash throughout Europe against progressive values such as cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism, which impacts on the ‘future of Europe’ debate, raising important questions for the evolution of Turkey-EU relations. Even though Turkey is no longer a hot topic in EU political parlance and public opinion, opposition to Turkish EU membership continues in the form of nativism, particularly with reference to the issues of immigration and Islam, as the cases of AfD in Germany and UKIP in Britain show.

KEYWORDS:

• populism
• ‘future of Europe’ debate
• Turkey-EU relations
• UKIP
• AfD
• EU enlargement

Notes

¹ The Deal stipulated that “all new irregular migrants crossing from Turkey into Greek islands as from 20 March 2016 will be returned to Turkey” and “for every Syrian being returned to Turkey from Greek islands, another Syrian will be resettled from Turkey to the EU taking into account the UN Vulnerability Criteria” (Council of the EU 2016).

² “On 25 August 2015, the Federal Office of Migration and Refugees of Germany announced that ‘the Dublin procedures of Syrian nationals are at the present time […] effectively no longer pursued’ meaning that Syrians could apply for asylum in Germany rather than their country of first entry into the EU without the threat of deportation to the latter” (Kim 2017, 6).

³ This statement is actually somewhat of an oxymoron because there is a party named Populist Party in Britain.

⁴ After leaving UKIP, Nigel Farage established a new party named Brexit Party, specifically launched to push for respect of the EU referendum result. Although UKIP is still an active party and participated in the EP elections, it received only 3.21% of the British vote and gained no seats in the EP.

⁵ For a good discussion of the colonial possessions of EU member states, see Hansen 2004.

⁶ These leaders are the latest contributors to the debate. The ‘future of Europe’ debate has continued since 2017 in various EP plenary sessions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Başak Alpan

Başak Alpan is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration/Centre for European Studies of the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.