Slavenka Drakulic Talks About European Identity

When national identity becomes important, there is trouble in sight for the community, says the Croatian Author and Journalist Slavenka Drakulic in her interview with the Online-Magazine Europe &Me. The recipient of the 2004 "Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding" misses among Europeans the strong sense of belonging to Europe and points to the growing anti-immigrant atmosphere in Europe and in the EU in the last years. This has to do with fear; fear of the "other". At the moment Europeans are afraid of Muslims but also of the Roma - tomorrow it might be some other ethnic group, a nation or a religion.
Drakulic looks for the reasons behind this fear. Why are Europeans afraid of the "other"? And how is the "other" created? What would really be needed to grow together as a community?