Of Andrea Zhok
Source: Appeal to the People
Sometimes, in the face of the dismay of pro-European friends at the 'institutional crudeness' of the 'populists' (not only in Italy), I wonder what they expected. For years and years we have been going forward in Europe with one (self-styled) 'technocratic vanguard', removed from any public debate and any democratic control, who used their connections among cosmopolitan elites to publicize the Great European Project in individual countries as a project of common wealth and brotherhood. “Trust me”. Then, at the first serious difficulty, we saw everyone racing to save their assets (for example the bailout of French and German banks at the expense of Greece), a unleashing of asymmetric rules evaluated arbitrarily (state aid, trade surpluses, infringement procedures, ecc.), a pursuit of blaming the neighbor in complete ignorance of the realities of others, an explosion of blackmail, conditionality, threats, and all combined with an impoverishment of large sections of the population. In summary:
1) European workers initially and for decades confidently handed themselves over hand and foot to a technocratic elite; 2) this elite first brought them to the rocks, after which she tried to save herself, and not satisfied with this, she took it out on the lazy workers (among other things, categorizing them according to national stereotypes); 3) that same elite then deployed all its resources and media connections to spread adequate doses of guilt among European workers (no one should believe that "you lived beyond your means" only resonated in Italy: it was used everywhere, even in Germany to compress their welfare.)
At this point, Exactly, what did you think might happen?The only thing that pure and simple common sense would have been able to predict happened: the total irredeemable loss of credit of the technocratic elites and their project, which now turns out to be just THEIR project. So that project is simply defunct, and the sooner we understand this, the better off we will all be.The 'populists' did not drop from Mars. They are the ones who remain after you get rid of the technocratic elites. You don't like their rudeness and their vulgarity? Beh, dear stamped experts, find a mirror and you will see the culprit.This is the simple result of the catastrophic multi-year use of thoughtful expertise, of wise and prudent advice, of paternalistic explanations (and idiots)on how the 'good family man' manages a house, ecc.Once the credit is lost, once you open your mouth everyone knows you can't be trusted, beh, it's over: you can have the Media behind you, the Police and the Stock Exchange, but you are still destined to disappear, it's just a matter of time.