France, Italy, Germany: The right response to the protests

This is a moment of incredible simultaneity. This doesn't just mean the simultaneous massive protests in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Albania. It is also the simultaneity of action and theory, of unrest and economic proposals.

Because while the rebellion around the slogan “affordability” is forming on the streets, the economist Isabella Weber is presenting her concept of an “anti-fascist economic policy”. There is no causality between the two types of events: neither the economic program fueled the protests nor did the demands inspire them. It's just a simultaneity. The overlaps are unmistakable.

The fundamental operation that Weber undertakes with her “anti-fascist economic policy” is a shift in the political discourse. A change of terrain: away from the long-running topic “migration”, where the right-wingers have banished it, where they are holding it hostage, so to speak - towards a different topic. And that means focusing on other problems. And other solutions.

Exactly what the economist suggests is currently happening on the streets: it's a double change of terrain, so to speak. A shift from theory to protest and a shift in the problem.

The problem that comes into focus is the rapid increase in the cost of living, which is increasingly affecting more and more people. Right down to the middle class. It is what is known as the “affordability crisis”. The economist sees the solution to this in a “policy of affordability”. This consists in democratic governments ensuring the affordability of essential goods. So housing, food, mobility, care and health should be affordable. Because these are the essential basic material needs, as the economist explained in an interview with the taz.

Everyone has to feed themselves. Everyone has to move. And everyone needs a roof over their heads. Her central sentence is: “These are basic needs that unite us as humans.” The basis of this policy are rights that people have by virtue of being human - that is, what everyone is. Not based on any specific identity. In this respect, this is also a shift from debates about identity politics towards politics for the majority. This is just a side note.

Such “affordability politics” would be exactly the answer to the demands of the young demonstrators. In this respect, the concept of such an “anti-fascist economic policy” is not just a promising slogan in times that urgently need it. It could also be the new left-wing narrative that people have been calling for for so long. That new story that you were desperately looking for.

Because affordability is the only left-wing concept that still works at the moment. From Mandani in New York – to the KPÖ! The Austrian Communist Party has been scoring points with such policies for years and even provides the mayor of Graz. It is absurd that Austria is anything but progressive and is a pioneer here. However, this is less surprising when you consider: Weber's concept may be a narrative, the narrative that one has been desperately looking for. It offers a topic. It shows a possible way out of the crisis. And she names an addressee. So it is undoubtedly a narrative. There's just one thing it's clearly not - new. Rather, it follows exactly the designs and solutions that have already been offered. Around 100 years ago. In “Red Vienna”.

Today, the increasing unaffordability is, so to speak, the pressure point: where the existing situation no longer works. This suddenly breaks open. Nobody planned this. Nobody orchestrated this. It catches fire. It's breaking ground. In theory as well as on the street. The simultaneity is not a coincidence. Rather, it is what a political moment is.