These worrisome tendencies are balanced by the inertia of the process.
Politicians of all colors are committed to the European project.
Carping aside, the countries of central Europe stand to reap
significant economic benefits from their EU membership. Still, the
outcome of this clash between parochial nationalism and Europeanism is
far from certain and, contrary to received wisdom, the process is
reversible.
THE CENTRALISTS versus THE REGIONALISTS
The recent bickering about the Benes decrees proves that the vision of
a "Europe of regions" is ephemeral. True, the century old nation state
has weakened greatly and the centripetal energy of regions has
increased. But this applies only to homogeneous states.
Minorities tend to disrupt this continuity and majorities do their
damnedest to eradicate these discontinuities by various means - from
assimilation (central Europe) to extermination (the Balkan). Hungary's
policies - its status law and the economic benefits it bestowed upon
expatriate Hungarians - is the epitome of such tendencies.
These axes of tension delineate and form central Europe's political
landscape. The Procrustean categories of "left" and "right" do
injustice to these subtleties. As central Europe matures into fully
functioning capitalistic liberal democracies, proper leftwing parties
and their rightwing adversaries are bound to emerge.
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