Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Tuesday Europe could face an existential crisis over nationalism unless it owned up to its failure to handle a fiscal crisis and deal with an influx of migrants effectively. The economic austerity pursued by European governments had fostered fear, racism and the emergence of the far right, he told lawmakers in the European parliament. The firebrand leftist is a frequent critic of European governments but his comments carry fresh weight given Greece’s emergence from a third European bailout and the rise of far right and populist parties in Germany and elsewhere. “The EU’s failure to give democratic and effective responses to modern challenges will lead irrevocably to the triumph of chauvinism and will rekindle nationalistic rivalry,” he said. “It will turn it into a fragmented continent, a continent without cohesion, without an international role, and without a future,” he said. Published in Daily Times, September 12th 2018.