FIFTH COLUMN
by Marcello Veneziani
So, Germany replacing Europe in the United Nations Security Council. The French franc instead of the euro in African countries. The bilateral economic-political agreement between Macron is with Merkel on the head of Europe and its agreements.
The breaching of European debt limits by the French, with the approval of the Germans. The conquest of the Italian economy especially by French companies. The disintegration of every common European plan to deal with migratory flows, and the deliberate withdrawal of Germany and France from their responsibilities. And we could still continue. How to judge these factors overall, where they lead? To Europe's declaration of bankruptcy, rather to self-certification, to the prevalence of national interests over European interests, to the hegemony of national-colonial powers over the union between member states. In a word, those who undermine Europe are not those who leave, like the British; nor even those who thunder, sometimes harshly, against those in charge in Europe, as the Italian Grilloleghisti do. But it's really them, the alleged hosts. It's them, those of Aachen, those of the Carolingian axis, the Franco-Germans, to leave Europe.
Or if you prefer, they feel like the parents of Europe and consider other states as minors; they can leave the house and return, they can have the keys to the house, they can grant themselves freedoms that others are denied. When I hear the usual refrain about Europe's friends and enemies, the usual condemnation of nationalisms and sovereignisms, I wonder: and these two would be the guarantors of Europe? They are not the first proponents of nationalism and sovereignism, with the aberrant clarification that they are regardless of their people, pure kratos without demos, even though they are obvious, overwhelming minority in their countries? Symbolically serious is the agreement between Macron and Merkel to ask that the seat assigned to Europe in the Security Council be given to Germany instead. It is the disavowal ofEuropean Union, the abdication of the Union, the nullification of European representation in the world, in fear of new balances, new "sovereignist" waves can appoint representatives of Europe who do not conform and are not appreciated by the dominant establishment.
Now it is not a question of inventing new anti-French or anti-German crusades nor is it a question of fueling the European civil war and Eurexit, that is, Europe's exit from itself, as if she were possessed by a demon. No broken tones, no hunting the enemy as a scapegoat for internal difficulties. It's about first recomposing and then recomposing, that is, to adopt an appropriate attitude and then aim for a regeneration of the European pact, a redefinition. It's about thinking about one thing: there is a need to invent a European sovereignism, founded on a European patriotism. That is, on a common feeling, on a shared belonging to a civilization. Europe today, just like the Salvini-Di Maio government, is governed by a contract. That is, on an economic-financial pact, on the signing of an agreement and certain obligations related to that agreement. But it isn't there, and it can be seen with the naked eye, no European inspiration, no common identity fervor, no perception of living in an ordinary house. That would be the qualitative leap to make at this point.
A European patriotism, as a European sovereignism, it would not replace the patriotism and sovereignty of nations, but it would somehow be the synthesis of it, the guarantor of individual states and their national patriotisms. A European patriotism, a European sovereignism, it should be exercised with respect to the outside world before being applied to the Member States, and should deal with external business competition, of common European defence, of the planetary hegemony of the superpowers, of migratory flows and threats to Europe and Europeans. In short, it should be projected onto the outside, rather than being vexatious and oppressive internally. It should protect the European peoples rather than subject them to economic-financial diktats or dogmas of hospitality.
There are three patriotisms, one inside the other like matryoshka and like concentric circles: local patriotism, I would like to say zero kilometer, that of the nearest territory, of the province and its habitat; national patriotism, based on history, the language, states and national traditions; European patriotism, understood as patriotism of European civilizations and its external borders. We cannot think of suppressing one without then suppressing or nullifying the others.
And if the task of our days, paradoxical but not too much, and to defend Europe from pro-Europeans?
MV, The Truth 25 January 2019
The breaching of European debt limits by the French, with the approval of the Germans. The conquest of the Italian economy especially by French companies. The disintegration of every common European plan to deal with migratory flows, and the deliberate withdrawal of Germany and France from their responsibilities. And we could still continue. How to judge these factors overall, where they lead? To Europe's declaration of bankruptcy, rather to self-certification, to the prevalence of national interests over European interests, to the hegemony of national-colonial powers over the union between member states. In a word, those who undermine Europe are not those who leave, like the British; nor even those who thunder, sometimes harshly, against those in charge in Europe, as the Italian Grilloleghisti do. But it's really them, the alleged hosts. It's them, those of Aachen, those of the Carolingian axis, the Franco-Germans, to leave Europe.
Or if you prefer, they feel like the parents of Europe and consider other states as minors; they can leave the house and return, they can have the keys to the house, they can grant themselves freedoms that others are denied. When I hear the usual refrain about Europe's friends and enemies, the usual condemnation of nationalisms and sovereignisms, I wonder: and these two would be the guarantors of Europe? They are not the first proponents of nationalism and sovereignism, with the aberrant clarification that they are regardless of their people, pure kratos without demos, even though they are obvious, overwhelming minority in their countries? Symbolically serious is the agreement between Macron and Merkel to ask that the seat assigned to Europe in the Security Council be given to Germany instead. It is the disavowal ofEuropean Union, the abdication of the Union, the nullification of European representation in the world, in fear of new balances, new "sovereignist" waves can appoint representatives of Europe who do not conform and are not appreciated by the dominant establishment.
Now it is not a question of inventing new anti-French or anti-German crusades nor is it a question of fueling the European civil war and Eurexit, that is, Europe's exit from itself, as if she were possessed by a demon. No broken tones, no hunting the enemy as a scapegoat for internal difficulties. It's about first recomposing and then recomposing, that is, to adopt an appropriate attitude and then aim for a regeneration of the European pact, a redefinition. It's about thinking about one thing: there is a need to invent a European sovereignism, founded on a European patriotism. That is, on a common feeling, on a shared belonging to a civilization. Europe today, just like the Salvini-Di Maio government, is governed by a contract. That is, on an economic-financial pact, on the signing of an agreement and certain obligations related to that agreement. But it isn't there, and it can be seen with the naked eye, no European inspiration, no common identity fervor, no perception of living in an ordinary house. That would be the qualitative leap to make at this point.
A European patriotism, as a European sovereignism, it would not replace the patriotism and sovereignty of nations, but it would somehow be the synthesis of it, the guarantor of individual states and their national patriotisms. A European patriotism, a European sovereignism, it should be exercised with respect to the outside world before being applied to the Member States, and should deal with external business competition, of common European defence, of the planetary hegemony of the superpowers, of migratory flows and threats to Europe and Europeans. In short, it should be projected onto the outside, rather than being vexatious and oppressive internally. It should protect the European peoples rather than subject them to economic-financial diktats or dogmas of hospitality.
There are three patriotisms, one inside the other like matryoshka and like concentric circles: local patriotism, I would like to say zero kilometer, that of the nearest territory, of the province and its habitat; national patriotism, based on history, the language, states and national traditions; European patriotism, understood as patriotism of European civilizations and its external borders. We cannot think of suppressing one without then suppressing or nullifying the others.
And if the task of our days, paradoxical but not too much, and to defend Europe from pro-Europeans?
MV, The Truth 25 January 2019
http://www.marcelloveneziani.com/articoli/francia-e-germania-contro-leuropa/
