Polish youth on the far-right Independence Day march, November 2015.Wikicommons/ lithium1989. Some rights reserved.Refugees are now kingmakers in eastern Europe. They seem to have swiped out of office the Polish centrist government, while they have reinforced the wobbling power of Victor Orban who was the first to realize how to make use of them in his political machine. In Slovakia, the government (already at the forefront of an anti-refugee crusade) barely survived the sudden rise of its neo-Nazi party.
It is important to note that in the first two countries there are no refugees at all (apart from their constant presence in the media) and that they never had any intention of showing up there. This shows quite clearly that the political significance of refugees is independent of their very presence. They serve as ‘empty signifiers’ – any old fear or resentment can be freely and creatively projected onto them. This shows quite clearly that the political significance of refugees is independent of their very presence. They serve as ‘empty signifiers’.
In accordance with such projections, “the refugee crisis” demonstrates that western elites are driven by a leftist ideology that is out to destroy European civilisation. (It seems that Chancellor Merkel has seamlessly replaced Che Guevara as a figurehead for the world’s leftism). Or, in a lighter vein, that they are at any rate detached from reality, tremendously naïve, decadent and incapable of genuine action. In the eyes of a pro-government Polish media, the current exodus is an orchestrated action, a deliberate plan ‘of Islam’ to triumph over Europe in a millennial struggle.
