"In every European nation, there have been problems in history when the society was too divided"
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Harri Holkeri speaks from the vantage point of a mediator and a Nordic consensus politician. A former Finnish prime minister and one of the chairmen of the talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement, he learned that fragmentation is not a regional quirk but a recurrent European pattern. When society hardens into camps that deny each other legitimacy, democratic institutions lose their grip, and the space between disagreement and enmity collapses.
European history offers a grim catalogue. The French Revolution’s dizzying polarizations birthed terror and reaction. Weimar Germany’s mutually annihilating extremes paved the way for dictatorship. Spain’s ideological schisms ignited civil war. The Balkans in the 1990s showed how identity fissures, once politicized, can become violent. Holkeri’s own Finland descended into civil war in 1918 when economic hardship and class antagonism outpaced the capacity for compromise. The details differ, but the mechanism repeats: economic strain and cultural fear intensify, leaders weaponize grievance, and institutions designed for negotiation are overwhelmed by zero-sum logic.
The warning is not against pluralism. Diverse interests and robust debate are the lifeblood of open societies. The danger arises when polarization becomes existential, when opponents are treated as enemies to be defeated rather than citizens to be persuaded. At that point, social trust erodes, facts splinter, and opportunists thrive.
Holkeri’s career underscores the remedy: inclusive processes, patient negotiation, and institutions that force rivals to share responsibility. Nordic social partnership, coalition government, proportional representation, and the European project itself were built to contain fragmentation by drawing lines of cooperation across difference. Peace in Northern Ireland emerged when all parties had a stake in the outcome and a framework to manage inevitable disputes.
The past is not destiny, but it is instruction. European nations that remember how quickly division corrodes the commons can invest in bridges before barricades appear: fair economic arrangements, credible information, judicial independence, and a political culture that prizes dignity over domination.
European history offers a grim catalogue. The French Revolution’s dizzying polarizations birthed terror and reaction. Weimar Germany’s mutually annihilating extremes paved the way for dictatorship. Spain’s ideological schisms ignited civil war. The Balkans in the 1990s showed how identity fissures, once politicized, can become violent. Holkeri’s own Finland descended into civil war in 1918 when economic hardship and class antagonism outpaced the capacity for compromise. The details differ, but the mechanism repeats: economic strain and cultural fear intensify, leaders weaponize grievance, and institutions designed for negotiation are overwhelmed by zero-sum logic.
The warning is not against pluralism. Diverse interests and robust debate are the lifeblood of open societies. The danger arises when polarization becomes existential, when opponents are treated as enemies to be defeated rather than citizens to be persuaded. At that point, social trust erodes, facts splinter, and opportunists thrive.
Holkeri’s career underscores the remedy: inclusive processes, patient negotiation, and institutions that force rivals to share responsibility. Nordic social partnership, coalition government, proportional representation, and the European project itself were built to contain fragmentation by drawing lines of cooperation across difference. Peace in Northern Ireland emerged when all parties had a stake in the outcome and a framework to manage inevitable disputes.
The past is not destiny, but it is instruction. European nations that remember how quickly division corrodes the commons can invest in bridges before barricades appear: fair economic arrangements, credible information, judicial independence, and a political culture that prizes dignity over domination.
Quote Details
| Topic | Peace |
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