Robert Steuckers (born 8 January 1956) is a Belgian writer and political activist on the

far right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...

, associated with the

European New Right The European New Right (ENR) not to be confused with the New Right (Like the New Right in South Korea and other New Right movements which are for capitalism) is a far-right movement which originated in France as the Nouvelle Droite in the late 19 ...

. He is a former member of

GRECE The Groupement de Recherche et d'Études pour la Civilisation Européenne ("Research and Study Group for European Civilization"), better known as GRECE, is a French ethnonationalist think tank founded in 1968 to promote the ideas of the Nouvell ...

and formed his own organisation Synergies européennes in 1994. He promotes

pan-European nationalism European nationalism (sometimes called pan-European nationalism) is a form of pan-nationalism based on a pan-European identity. It is considered minor since the National Party of Europe disintegrated in the 1970s. It is distinct from Pro-Europ ...

and has been described as close to the

Identitarian movement The Identitarian movement or Identitarianism is a Pan-European nationalism, pan-European nationalist, Ethnic nationalism, ethno-nationalist, Far-right politics, far-right ideological movement centred on the preservation of White people, white ...

Life and political activity

Robert Steuckers was born in

Uccle Uccle (French language, French, ) or Ukkel (Dutch language, Dutch, ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the southern part of the region, it ...

, Belgium, on 8 January 1956. He is Flemish but nearly bilingual in Dutch and French. He joined

Alain de Benoist Alain de Benoist ( ; ; born 11 December 1943), also known as Fabrice Laroche, Robert de Herte, David Barney, and other pen names, is a French political philosopher and journalist, a founding member of the ''Nouvelle Droite'' (France's European Ne ...

French New Right The ''Nouvelle Droite'' (, ), sometimes shortened to the initialism ND, is a far-right political movement which emerged in France during the late 1960s. The ''Nouvelle Droite'' is the origin of the wider European New Right (ENR). Various schola ...

organisation

in 1973 and left it for the first time in 1981 to found his own similar group, Études, recherches, et orientations européennes (). From 1983 to 1999, Steuckers published the journal ''Vouloir'' (). In 1985, he and the fellow New Rightists

Guillaume Faye Guillaume Faye (; 7 November 1949 – 6 March 2019) was a French political theorist, journalist, writer, and leading member of the French New Right. Continuing the tradition of Giorgio Locchi, his various articles and books sought to posit Isla ...

and Pierre Freson wrote the brochure ''Little Lexicon of the European Partisan'' that was distributed by the

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

groups

Third Way The Third Way is a predominantly centrist political position that attempts to reconcile centre-right and centre-left politics by advocating a varying synthesis of Right-wing economics, right-wing economic and Left-wing politics, left-wing so ...

and Forces Nouvelles. Around 1990, Steuckers functioned as a link between the

and the Russian far-right thinker

Aleksandr Dugin Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin (; born 7 January 1962) is a Russian far-right political philosopher. He is the leading theorist of Russian neo-Eurasianism. Born into a military intelligence family, Dugin was an anti-communist dissident during the ...

. Dugin was influenced by articles in Steuckers' journals ''Orientations'' and ''Vouloir'', the two met in July 1990, and it was Steuckers who introduced Dugin to

geopolitics Geopolitics () is the study of the effects of Earth's geography on politics and international relations. Geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them, it may also focus on two other kinds of State (polity), states: ''de fac ...

and the term

National Bolshevism National Bolshevism, whose supporters are known as National Bolsheviks and colloquially as Nazbols, is a syncretic political movement committed to combining ultranationalism and Bolshevik communism. History and origins In Germany Natio ...

. Having left GRECE for a second time in 1993, Steuckers founded the organisation Synergies européennes (SE; ) in 1994 and was joined by other New Rightists who had fallen out with Benoist. SE promotes a

Eurasianist Eurasianism ( ) is a socio-political movement in Russia that emerged in the early 20th century under the Russian Empire, which states that Russia does not belong in the "European" or "Asian" categories but instead to the geopolitical concept of E ...

ideology distinct from Dugin's Russian project, envisioning a political axis of Paris, Berlin and Moscow. A prominent member became the Romanian , who envisioned a political union of

white people White is a Race (human categorization), racial classification of people generally used for those of predominantly Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry. It is also a Human skin color, skin color specifier, although the definition can var ...

. SE has never attracted the same media attention as GRECE, but figured in public discussions when some of its academic members were accused of having created a New Right faculty at the

Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 The Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 (), also referred to as Lyon 3, is one of the three public universities of Lyon, France. It is named after the French Resistance fighter Jean Moulin and specialises in Law, Politics, Philosophy, Management and l ...

. Steuckers operates the associated website ''Euro-Synergies'', which publishes articles and essays in favour of

and against

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...

and

globalism Globalism has multiple meanings. In political science, it is used to describe "attempts to understand all of the interconnections of the modern world—and to highlight patterns that underlie (and explain) them". While primarily associated wit ...

. He describes himself as a ''métapolitologue'', with which he means a

metapolitical Metapolitics (sometimes written meta-politics) describes political attempts to speak in a metalinguistic sense about politics; that is, to have a political dialogue about politics itself. Activists who use the phrase often view metapolitics as a fo ...

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

. For periods, Steuckers was close to the Belgian far-right parties

New Belgian Front New Belgian Front (FNB, , ) is a Belgian nationalist political party. The FNB was founded in 1996 by Marguerite Bastien, a former member of the Liberal Reformist Party (''Parti réformateur libéral'') and a candidate for the National Front (' ...

and

Vlaams Blok Vlaams Blok (, VB; ) was the name of a Belgian far-right and secessionist political party with an anti-immigration platform.Erk, 2005, pp. 493-502. Its ideologies embraced Flemish nationalism, calling for the independence of Flanders. The part ...

Views

The scholar

José Pedro Zúquete José Pedro Zúquete (born 27 May 1976) is a Portuguese political scientist. Born in Leiria, Portugal, he holds a licentiate in history and a doctorate in political science. He has studied and worked at the University of Coimbra, the Sapienza Uni ...

describes Steuckers' positions as having moved from the New Right to become closer to the

. He is known for his interest in the

Conservative Revolution The Conservative Revolution (), also known as the German neoconservative movement (), or new nationalism (),; . was a German national-conservative and ultraconservative movement prominent in Weimar Republic, Germany and First Austrian Republic, ...

of interwar Germany. He co-wrote works with

Armin Mohler Armin Mohler (12 April 1920 – 4 July 2003) was a Swiss political philosopher and journalist, known for his works on the Conservative Revolution. He is widely seen as the father of the Neue Rechte (''New Right''), the German branch of the Europ ...

, a writer associated with the Conservative Revolution, whom he considers to be his mentor. In the ''Little Lexicon of the European Partisan'', Steuckers promotes

tragedy A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsi ...

as a central component of the "

pagan Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

conception-of-the-world" he subscribes to. The book describes the tragic sensibility as distinct from

pessimism Pessimism is a mental attitude in which an undesirable outcome is anticipated from a given situation. Pessimists tend to focus on the negatives of life in general. A common question asked to test for pessimism is "Is the glass half empty or half ...

, and defines it as a view of human existence as "random, risky, threatened by death and devoid of any other finality than the one imprinted upon it, through combat and challenges faced, by human will". Steuckers opposes the existence of immigrant communities in Europe, describing them as "ethnic groups passing through, not assimilated because there are too many of them, nd whodevelop parallel economies in order to survive, which, unfortunately, too often lead to Mafia networks." Steuckers has criticised de Benoist and GRECE for several reasons. He says their conception of metapolitics is sterile and detached from reality. His view of geopolitics and

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

as central to concrete political organisation differs from GRECE's project. He is critical of de Benoist's acceptance of permanent immigrant communities in Europe. Fluent in German, he has criticised French New Rightists for having a lack of understanding of the language despite relying heavily on German sources.

References

Citations

Sources

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External links

Personal website

Euro-Synergies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steuckers, Robert 1956 births 20th-century Belgian male writers 20th-century publishers (people) 21st-century Belgian male writers Belgian modern pagans Belgian activists Belgian political writers Belgian writers in French Far-right modern pagans Flemish activists Flemish writers Geopoliticians Living people Modern pagan writers New Right (Europe) Pan-European nationalism People from Uccle