It’s time for liberals to reclaim national symbols. For too long, liberals have shied away from expressions of national pride, leaving a gap for the far right to fill. Yet every four years, the World Cup shows us a different kind of national identity, joyful, civic, and inclusive. One that should not be feared.
Written By: Lisa Lundgren, Research Fellow at ELF
Every night and early morning these past weeks, something remarkable keeps happening. Millions of people around the world gather at football stadiums, in sport bars and on the streets to cheer on their countries. People are proudly wearing national jerseys, waving flags, chanting national anthems and celebrating victories with strangers. Yet, no one concludes that the World Cup is turning millions of people into dangerous nationalists.
Outside the football world, the term nationalism1 has become a “dirty word”, associated with anti-immigration politics, right-wing populism and exclusionary ideas of national identity. However, political theory distinguishes between ethnic nationalism and a civil or liberal nationalism. The former defines a nation through ancestry and often breeding xenophobia and ethnic supremacy, while the latter sees the nation as a progressive force for unity and liberation.
John Stuart Mill, one of liberalism’s most influential thinkers, argues that democratic institutions work best when citizens feel a sense of community with each other. A shared national identity, he says, makes democratic governance possible because it creates the trust and solidarity necessary to collect taxes or to accept the outcome of a political election. More recently, political philosopher David Miller has developed a similar argument: liberal democratic states require a shared national identity. For citizens to accept redistribution of wealth and social welfare systems, they must be willing to see fellow citizens as members of the same community. And it is fantastic that most people accept the nation state as such a community, no matter how many millions of people (most of whom you will never meet) live there.
Unfortunately, many liberals today have come to view expressions of national pride as taboo. This way, we have left the symbols of the nation to be used by far-right forces with exclusionary and xenophobic agendas.
Germany illustrates this dilemma well. Because of the country’s horrific history, many Germans have felt uneasy about displaying national symbols such as the German flag. Neo-nazi and far-right German parties have used national symbols and expressed national pride as part of their political identity. It was not until the Sommermärchen (“summer fairy tale”) of 2006 when the unified Germany hosted its first world cup that people started using the German flag again. Still today however, many German football fans feel that wearing the national jersey or waving the flag is politically loaded.2 This is despite the fact that Germany has developed into a liberal democracy. A German football fan has all the right to feel proud of what Germany is today: placed 13 on the world democracy ranking3, and positioned 9th in international comparison on gender equality.4
When pro-democratic citizens distance themselves from national symbols, they leave room for extremists to take ownership of them. Germany, as well as every other country in the world, has flaws. That does not mean that we can allow the far-right to be the only ones expressing national identity or national pride. One positive example here is supporters of the Dutch liberal party D66 who successfully waved the Dutch flag during campaign rallies in 2025 to ‘reclaim’ the national symbol.5
When you are cheering on your country in a World Cup game, national identity is joyful rather than aggressive, civic rather than ethnic, inclusive rather than excluding. Spaniards celebrate Spain while recognising that Argentinians, Belgians and Moroccans have every right to celebrate their countries with equal enthusiasm. There is no contradiction between loving one’s own country and respecting the joy of others.
The World Cup also represents something that has become increasingly rare: meritocracy. The strongest team wins simply because they perform better than their opponents. In that sense, the tournament reminds us of a liberal principle that we cherish: success, in any field of life, should be determined by excellence and fair competition.
This core liberal principle was threatened, however, when US president Trump made a phone call to the president of FIFA last week to have the suspension (which normally follows a red card in football) of a player in the US national team removed for their upcoming important game against Belgium. Infantino listened and the suspension was removed.6 This is not only an illiberal, but a deeply unsportsmanlike manoeuvre which threatens the future of football. Luckily, this terrible political intervention did not have an effect on the result, as the US team lost their game against Belgium yesterday – “football won”, as Swedish sports journalist Erik Niva described it.7
FIFA, as organizers of the world cup, must be criticised when they act corrupt, for their support of anti-liberal states, and for their treatment of the Iranian team and supporters. But at the same time, this should not blind us to the extraordinary fact that, for the overwhelming majority of supporters, the World Cup is a positive and uniting force. By coming together as citizens and supporters we can build solidarity, challenge injustice and push the governing institutions in a better direction.
It is time for liberals to reclaim the nation, not because of nostalgia or ethnic supremacy, but because democracy itself depends on a meaningful sense of “we”. It depends on citizens who care about each other. The World Cup reminds us every four years that national identity can unite rather than divide. As liberals, we should not fear that lesson. We should build upon it.