Daria Dugina a reflection of Europe

 By Milton Lima

06-06-2025

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The word that best describes Daria Dugina is 'philosophical skill'. I am not judging the value of her theory, but rather using her arguments to explore the future vision set out by the Nouvelle Droite as envisaged by Dugina. She believes that Europe could breathe new life into its unique French heritage by drawing inspiration from the ideas of Alain de Benoist and the Nouvelle Droite.

Dugina's book is full of rhetoric that she considers to be both Platonic and philosophical. As a French-trained philosopher and the daughter of the philosopher Alexander Dugin, one might say that if she were she not Russian, she would be French.

Her interest in French ideas and her view of France as the heart of Europe are intriguing. She engages with newspapers, movements, thinkers and ideas to draw attention to the debate on the future of Europe. She argues that a globalist elite dominates the entire political spectrum because it embodies the truth of the world.

Further information on the key themes addressed in the book can be found in the text below (here).

She gets right to the heart of the matter on page 16: “...the French Nouvelle Droite represents a Traditionalist, cultural, conservative revolution. The New Right might be called the new encyclopaedists or the new European “Enlightenment”—Enlightenment 2.0—but in the reverse.” The original Enlightenment, one of the most persuasive con jobs in history, broke the traditions of Europe and Western European Civilization by insidious design. It represented the end of the traditional monarchies, the end of meaningful Western European Christianity, a recalculation of the Greco-Roman legal and philosophical legacy, and the alteration of the organization of European nation-states and polities. Going in reverse means ending the charade and lies of the past five hundred years and reestablishing the old order of Christendom. 

What struck me most about her approach to defending the right with her famous references was the fact that she referenced Alain de Benoist's trajectory, and didn't shy away from citing the work of both Julian Freund and Carl Schmitt.

Her desire to look to ancient Greece as a reference point for true Christianity most clearly expresses her beliefs. For her, religion as a form of political organisation is not linked to capitalism. So, what is this new way of governing the world? The answer lies in reading Alain de Benoist. According to Dugina, his work provides the answer. In her book, she states that there is a tradition of returning everything to the way it was before. De Benoist believes that the decadence of the West cannot continue, and that a new era of enlightenment must begin under the guidance of the New Right.

As that the author references the work of various other authors, some of the details in the book warrant further theoretical study. I am only familiar with some of these authors, and I am entirely unfamiliar with the rest. Nevertheless, based on my limited knowledge of political and theoretical debates on the right, I can say that the book is very good.