Once upon a time
Reflections on the results of the European Union parliamentary elections
The sky over Brussels is getting darker and darker, moving from deep grey to pitch black. Everybody expected the far-right parties to get many votes across European Union countries, and they now rejoice for the outgoing coalition of the EPP (Christian Democrats), S&D (Socialists) and RE (Liberals) having just enough votes, possibly with the addition of the Greens, to remain in power and form the next European Commission. But the results by countries and the overall redistribution of seats in the EU Parliament leave hardly any margin for happiness, indicating instead how the slippery slope undertaken by the EU is getting steeper and steeper, casting a severe and tragic doubt over the actual relevance and value of the most courageous and visionary political project in modern history. Harrowingly, after celebrating on the 6th of June the landing in Normandy and the beginning of the final push to free Europe from the nazi-fascists, we watched three days later, some of us aghast, nazi-fascist political parties gaining ground enormously all across the European Union, starting with Germany where the very extreme right-wing party of AfD is now the second largest in the country, merely 80 years after the defeat of their political father and inspirer, Adolf Hitler.
Beauty and the Beast
I cannot imagine what Konrad Adenauer, Robert Schuman and Altiero Spinelli would think if they could see the deplorable drift the EU has embarked on. Their vision squandered in a flurry of nationalism, and the ghost from last century's black past raised its ugly head again. The beauty of their project for a united Europe cradle of peace, democracy and fundamental rights, being under attack by the return of the nostalgics of the nazi-fascist beast that our grandfathers' generation fought hard to defeat, paying a high price in blood and death. However, the straying of the EU from its original vision did not happen by accident or all of a sudden; it came from years of unresolved issues and the inability of member states to stay the course of actual integration. Some elements of this are shown very clearly.
Let's start with the abstention rate: close to 50% of the voters did not show up (49.7%, to be precise), reaching as many as 70% abstaining in some countries. While it is usual nowadays to have a low turnout at the polls in many European countries, these numbers show how irrelevant politics, parliaments, and governments have become for a substantial portion of the population. People see no value in participating and pursuing the common good; individualism and, at the country level, nationalism are the sole interests to be sought outside the political institutions. The result is a perversion of democracy, which moves from being the ruling by the majority to being the governing of the majority of the minority.
If the above is a common sentiment in many national elections, for the EU this is compounded by years, if not decades, of an institutional setup that has grown increasingly separated from the people. The inability to tackle the needs and aspirations of European citizens, a convoluted system of governance that never resolved the dichotomy between national sovereignty and common policy in a sort of federal union of states, has made people wonder whether the mammoth machinery established in Brussels serves any meaningful purpose. And if it doesn’t, or it is perceived as such, then the only practical alternative is to resort to the primacy of the nation-state and its interests. As a result, the beauty of the original European political project seems further and further out of reach, and the beast of nation-state dominance over common good is back in force.
The pro-Europe political parties also have their significant share of responsibility, first and foremost because of their inability to offer a real alternative vision to that of the anti-Europe, right-wing nationalists. On the contrary, on the most relevant issues, the effort has constantly been to implement policies as close as possible to those proposed by the nationalists, all in the vain hope to gain votes and support from that portion of the electorate. As a result, on foreign policy, the economy, employment and migration, to name a few, there has never been a real and effective alternative proposal but just a bad copy of those of the right-wing parties. Everybody, however, prefers an original over a copy, and it is no wonder that the reason to support a community of states that cannot provide an alternative to the actions of individual nations has continued to fade away.
To be or not to be
I wish I had the recipe to indicate where we go from here and how we salvage what, once upon a time, was a major step forward towards peace and unity in Europe. Sadly, I don’t know, and I am not even sure it is feasible. I struggle to be overly optimistic or hopeful, wishing simultaneously to be proven completely wrong.
The fact is that the EU looks to me like a teenager at the end of high school, still undecided about whether to be a doctor, an engineer, or a Hollywood star. Despite its decades of existence, Europe has not grown into a real community of states capable of common policies and common action on all the sensitive topics affecting people’s lives in Europe and elsewhere. For a Union founded, among others, on the pillar of fundamental rights enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and subsequently in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, it is astonishing to see how easily these values are set aside for political convenience, or to please political allies domestic or foreign… From the EU’s external borders to the situation in Ukraine or Gaza, the EU is incapable of speaking with one voice and of having a policy independent from their US big brother (or master, rather), thus their credibility as a major actor on the international scene lowering by the day.
The next Commission and Parliament are supposed to review the EU Treaties. How would that happen when EU member states are increasingly under the yoke of extreme right when not outright nazi-fascist political parties? How much will the EU be able to move towards integration, or will this political scenario be a push towards increasing disintegration? What is clear to me is that either we find a way to stop the fascist drift Europe has embarked on, and we manage to be in the Atlantic Pact without being subservient to the USA, or the Union of Europe will soon be a memory of the past, a fairy tale without a happy ending.
