Unpatriotic Nationalism

At a time when Europe is facing external pressures and internal fractures, the new identity-based nationalism weakens the very states it claims to defend — and reveals itself, paradoxically, as unpatriotic.

As we witness the resurgence of imperial ambitions — with a revisionist Russia seeking to restore spheres of influence lost after the Cold War, or an America simultaneously leaning towards strategic isolationism and territorial expansionism — Europe’s stability once again depends, as it did in the past, on its ability to resist internal fragmentation. In this context, the nationalist movements multiplying across the European Union represent not only a challenge to the continent’s democratic cohesion but also a threat to its shared sovereignty.

Identity-based nationalism, as it manifests today, tends to propose a closed vision of the nation, wary of supranational institutions. Although there are internal divisions — with some of these movements attempting to expand identity into a broader European civilisational register — the majority feed off nostalgia for a full sovereignty that rarely existed within the framework of nation-states. The absolute sovereignties of the past were exercised by empires — continental, like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or overseas, as in Portugal’s case — and were based on the domination of multiple ethnicities, languages, and territories under a single centre of power. What many contemporary nationalists evoke as national sovereignty was, in fact, imperial sovereignty.

By ignoring this fact, nationalists construct a dangerous political fiction: the idea that European nations can once again be fully sovereign within their current borders in a globalised and multipolar world. By undermining the European project — which remains the most sophisticated attempt to reconcile national sovereignty with international interdependence — these same nationalists weaken the foundations of liberal democracies, eroding trust in institutions, promoting narratives that delegitimise the judiciary, and encouraging disinformation and antagonism among Member States. In doing so, they politically weaken the continent in the face of the imperial appetites of external powers, which have always known how to exploit internal divisions to assert their influence.

It is in this sense that the identity-based nationalism now spreading across several European states — initially backed by Putin’s Russia, evident in the financial and media support given to Eurosceptic parties like AfD in Germany, Lega in Italy, or the National Front in France, and now increasingly influenced by the new U.S. administration’s support for nationalist movements in countries such as the UK, Germany, Poland, or Romania — acts as a Trojan horse within Europe itself: operating under the banner of patriotism, but serving, whether knowingly or not, agendas that weaken the strategic interests of the very states they claim to defend.

In light of this, it is essential to clearly distinguish between patriotism and nationalism — not only as political categories, but as moral attitudes and future-oriented projects. As Charles de Gaulle stated, “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism is when hate for other people comes first.” And as George Orwell warned, “Patriotism is love of one’s country; nationalism is the belief that one’s country is superior to all others.” These distinctions now mark the fault line between Europe and its own disintegration.

It is therefore imperative to return to a democratic and European patriotism — one that recognises in integration, cooperation, and the common defence of fundamental rights and freedoms the true path toward strategic autonomy and the dignity of European nations in the 21st century.

This article was first published in Portuguese in the magazine Expresso.