A Broader View on Politics on Memory Peter Vermeersch , professor at the University of Leuven ( KU Leuven ) and senior researcher at the Institute for
International and European Policy ( IIEB )
Peter Vermeersch highlighted the utilization of a vocabulary of morality by nationalist actors in memory conflicts in Europe . He started by reaffirming Tony Judt ’ s statement , that the European project was indeed not born out of optimism , ambition , and idealism , as retroactively has been imagined . “ The ways we remember the past influence the ways we practice contemporary politics ”, said Vermeersch , succinctly explaining that different memories bring out different contemporary politics .
In regards to the politics of memory , the professor stressed , “ they are as much , if not more , about making us forget , than they are about making us remember ”. To illustrate , he identified three mnemonic techniques of forgetting , which are especially prevalent in national and nationalist policies : the creation of an abstract ‘ we ’; the simplification of history ; and the
overwriting of old histories with new stories .
Vermeersch then continued by pointing to the morality insertion within these nationalist tactics through a framework of victimization and how they relate to the European Union . He stated that the notion of victim and victimizer have obtained a central position in nationalist rhetoric connecting past and present , where the majority is presented as a ‘ we ’ under threat , especially in the context of elections .
The notion of a stable historical ‘ we ’ hereby functions to legitimize a narrative where the majority once was a minority under threat , and thus still can be imagined as such . Europe in this context is transformed into a ‘ they ’ that is not part of the ‘ we ’ and thus receives the status of victimizer in contrast to the national ‘ victim ’. Minority groups , especially those that have been Europeanized and to whom European legislation pertains , become framed as part of the European ‘ they ’ and are similarly excluded from the national ‘ we ’.
He highlighted the shared responsibility of the EU in facilitating the move from a left / right to a we / they dichotomy , by giving the example of the EU ’ s functioning as a moral agent in the EU enlargement , through policies of conditionality . Similarly , he made clear that the successes of nationalist policies cannot be disconnected from the failures of other forms of democratic attempts .