Their arguments on Brexit are, after more than half a decade, tired; but I would struggle to argue that some of the points being repeated over and over inside the conference were any less spent.
Conservatives and right-of-centre parties won 33 of the 51 seats in the election to the Constitutional Council that will decide on the future of the new proposed constitution.
It is as if, in the boomer-con’s mind, liberalism is a ‘nice principle’ that ought to temper the ‘nasty but necessary principle’ of conservatism. Young-cons, however, don’t identify liberalism with niceness at all.
It is no wonder that the countryside and small towns have always remained a bastion of traditionalism, naturally suspicious of progress and resistant to change.
Despite clear and unwavering opposition to socialism, the conservative movement remains reluctant to dip its toes into the debate over the welfare state, the foremost vehicle for socialist policies in democratic countries.
Broglio has cherished his service to military personnel, and did not fail to point out that the military “remains the largest single source of vocations to the priesthood in the United States.”
Climate activist Luisa Neubauer promoted her new book by claiming that she didn’t feel safe at the Frankfurt book fair in the presence of right-wing publishers. An invitation by Junge Freiheit to participate in a discussion was, however, left unanswered.
Names are important, and the name ‘conservative’ is important if we are not to forget who we are and what we strive for. Conservatives are not merely reactionaries. We affirm something. We affirm our civilisation and we want to conserve it.
