How European Libertarians Differ From American Ones
European and American libertarians share many core beliefs, such as opposition to excessive government regulation and protectionism, but differ notably in their views on nationalism and political figures like Donald Trump. European libertarians overwhelmingly reject both Trump and right-wing nationalist movements in their own countries, whereas some American libertarians express support or tolerance for such figures. The European movement appears more uniformly critical of nationalism, which they see as a major threat to economic liberty.
- ▪European libertarians hold an almost unanimously negative view of Donald Trump and his administration.
- ▪Many European libertarians also strongly oppose right-wing nationalist parties in their own countries, such as Germany's AfD and France's National Rally.
- ▪Hungarian attendees at LibertyCon Europe celebrated the electoral defeat of Viktor Orban, a nationalist leader admired by some US conservatives.
- ▪European libertarians, on average, view nationalism as the greatest threat to economic liberty today, a perspective less uniformly shared among American libertarians.
- ▪American libertarians have influenced their European counterparts and vice versa, reflecting the international growth of libertarian ideas.
- ▪One Scandinavian academic at the conference dissented from the widespread European agreement that nationalism is the primary threat to economic freedom.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Libertarianism How European Libertarians Differ From American Ones As I saw at a recent conference, the two groups are similar in many ways. But there are a few notable differences. Ilya Somin | 5.3.2026 12:00 AM <img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-8380370" src="https://d2eehagpk5cl65.cloudfront.net/img/q60/uploads/2026/05/LibertyCon-Europe-1-300x212.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="212" srcset="https://d2eehagpk5cl65.cloudfront.net/img/q60/uploads/2026/05/LibertyCon-Europe-1-300x212.jpg 300w, https://d2eehagpk5cl65.cloudfront.net/img/q60/uploads/2026/05/LibertyCon-Europe-1-1024x725.jpg 1024w, https://d2eehagpk5cl65.cloudfront.net/img/q60/uploads/2026/05/LibertyCon-Europe-1-768x544.jpg 768w,…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Reason.com.
Discussion
0 commentsMore from Reason.com
