A Third Alternative
LORENZO MARSILI
The grand-coalition has become the symbol of failed Europe. Traditional centre-left and centre-right parties, which until recently represented the vast majority of the electorate, are today obliged to join forces to keep insurgents at bay and ensure governability — barely and with increasing difficulty.
Sadly, a retreat to the fortress of the status quo will not save Europe from a postmodern re-enactment of the 1930s. Distrust towards the political establishment and towards democratic institutions is just a reaction to the spectacle of mainstream politics barricading itself to defend a political and economic system that no longer works for a majority: a broken economy in a broken democracy.
The economic and refugee crises are two key failures of our broken system. What solutions are on offer? A bribe to the authoritarian Erdoğan regime to try and keep refugees out of the EU. Austerity — and at best a few decimal points of budget “flexibility” — to address an economic disaster that has now lasted for nearly ten years with no signs of improvement.
Our continent is blocked by mutual vetoes while our governments choose to navel-gaze in the hope that problems will sort themselves out.
They won’t. We are facing the storm in paper boats piloted by drunk captains. The timidity of the establishment is a recipe for disaster. The increasing feeling of political and economic exclusion of many is real — and is here to stay. It represents a generalised system failure to which no convincing response is being formulated by mainstream parties.
Let’s be honest with ourselves: the centre cannot, must not, and will not hold. But to avoid ceding the resulting void to the racists and reactionaries we need to open a space for a third alternative — simultaneously against the policies of the establishment thus far and against resurgent nationalism and xenophobia.
Will we manage to set sail before hitting the rocks? As every day goes by, it becomes clearer than ever that only a pan-European mutiny will set the course straight.
Lorenzo Marsili is the co-founder and Director of European Alternatives. He is the initiator and current spokesperson of the European Initiative for Media Pluralism, an international campaign demanding better protection for media pluralism and freedom at European level. A long-time student of China, he initiated a multi-year arts exchange programme between cultural innovators in China, Brazil and Europe, Transnational Dialogues. He has previously worked in setting up Transeuropa Festival and was founding editor of Naked Punch magazine. He has degrees in philosophy, sociology, and Chinese studies, and is an active commentator and public speaker. He tweets @l_marsili.
Read more about the A Soul For Europe Pre-Conference debate here.
