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Europe: The Powerlessness of Nations and the « Populist » QuestionIn this article, drawn from a contribution to the series “Uses of Xenophobia” on openDemocracy (www.opendemocracy.net), the author discusses the relevance of the category of “populism” to an analysis of the manifestations of xenophobia in the context of the crisis of the construction of Europe. It criticizes the confusion of uses which blurs the political antitheses. It warns against the drawing of any facile analogy between the present situation and the effects of the earlier major economic, political and moral crisis, that of the 1930’s, while at the same time stressing the impossibility of completely avoiding such comparisons. More specifically, the author indicates two specific roots of the resurgence of nationalism in aggressive forms: the incapacity of the European Union to defend its own pluralism, and therefore national and cultural diversity, against the utilitarian processes of normalization, and the devastating social effects following from the destruction of the “social state” which was constructed in the 20th century within a national framework. For a reconstruction of Europe, which has now become inevitable, these two problems must be directly addressed.