Identity Politics and Constitutional Disagreement: the Rise of the “New” Populisms and Nationalisms in the Fragmented European Landscape

The rise of identity politics is challenging the modern liberal democracies and the constitutional agreements that come from it. Constitutional theory such as multiculturalism or supranationalism are no longer capable of fixing the conflicts we are living within our pluralistic societies, because social groups believe that their identities are not receiving adequate recognition in the public square. Whenever these requests for identity\u2019s recognition cannot find places where make their voice heard, they may lead to forms of populism/nationalism. This phenomenon calls into question the European multilevel constitutionalism, built as a governance without government that, after the failed effort to reconcile the European demos under a European constitution, focused on the protection of human rights. The paper, firstly deepening the identity issue from a theoretical perspective, aims to investigate the origin of nationalisms within the EU. In the light of this analysis, the paper will try to answer the question: how can constitutionalism (and European constitutionalism) help in managing this disagreement