Weak democracy and strong nationalism. Traditional forces fighting for the Status Quo, new powers in favour of radical change. And conservatives derailing to more radical positions
by Emanuele Bonini
Forget about the idea of the United States of Europe, and forget about the European Union as it has been so far. There will be no steps forward. On the contrary, on the horizon lies the status quo, at the best. Democracy is experiencing one of its worse existential crisis since the period which generated the premises for what has been know as the second world war, and the today context seems to be not so different from what already was once.
Traditional political forces become weaker and weaker day by day, and the only way they have (or they think to have) to survive is to shift to more radical positions in order to circumscribe extremisms coming from all across the continent. There’s an ongoing self-defensive run based on the assumption by which subtracting argumentations to the populists can save what has been achieved. But this is a tricky experiment. Brexit is there to recall what can happen when a ruling party starts to play the same game of anti-system forces.
Netherlands made clear there is enough EU
Looking at what the prime minister of the Netherlands stated last week during the plenary session of the European Parliament, it becames clear that the time for a further integration is over. «I believe the future of Europe should essentially be about the original promise of Europe, the promise of sovereign Member States working together to help each other to achieve greater prosperity, stability and security». Mark Rutte has no intention of making Europe a federation. A confederation as it is – or, well, as it was in its origins – must be the path to follow. This is a pure conservative vision which means no evolution. «The debate on the future of Europe is not about more or less Europe, but about what the added value of Eu can be». Here we have a genuine political slang showing how EU be too much powerful.
Forget about the idea of the United States of Europe, and forget about the European Union as it has been so far. There will be no steps forward. On the contrary, on the horizon lies the status quo, at the best. Democracy is experiencing one of its worse existential crisis since the period which generated the premises for what has been know as the second world war, and the today context seems to be not so different from what already was once.
Traditional political forces become weaker and weaker day by day, and the only way they have (or they think to have) to survive is to shift to more radical positions in order to circumscribe extremisms coming from all across the continent. There’s an ongoing self-defensive run based on the assumption by which subtracting argumentations to the populists can save what has been achieved. But this is a tricky experiment. Brexit is there to recall what can happen when a ruling party starts to play the same game of anti-system forces.
Netherlands made clear there is enough EU
Looking at what the prime minister of the Netherlands stated last week during the plenary session of the European Parliament, it becames clear that the time for a further integration is over. «I believe the future of Europe should essentially be about the original promise of Europe, the promise of sovereign Member States working together to help each other to achieve greater prosperity, stability and security». Mark Rutte has no intention of making Europe a federation. A confederation as it is – or, well, as it was in its origins – must be the path to follow. This is a pure conservative vision which means no evolution. «The debate on the future of Europe is not about more or less Europe, but about what the added value of Eu can be». Here we have a genuine political slang showing how EU be too much powerful.
