In defence of europe

The enemies of democracy are xenophobic populist parties in various guises. The only safeguard against a relapse to the dystopia of competing nationalism is federalism.

One of the travesties of the truth perpetrated by the British loony right is that Silvio Berlusconi was removed by a conspiracy spearheaded by fictitious eurocrats.
In reality it was the democratically elected Italian parliament which denied Berlusconi a working majority. This came in the wake of a series of electoral defeats for Berlusconi in strategic cities like Milan and Naples and a referendum which stripped him of the legitimo impedimento-a legal tool designed to delay the corruption probes he is facing.
For the past year Berlusconi held to power with the votes of a motley crew of defectors from the opposition called the responsibili, which included Dominico Scilipoti who in the space of a week changed allegiance from the most extreme of anti Berlusconi parties (Di Pietro's Italy of Values) to the PDL.
Moreover the new government led by Mario Monti was given the support of all political forces including Berlusconi's Popolo Della Liberta,except the separatist Lega Nord, an extreme right party which forments hatred against immigrants and southerners alike.
Mario Monti has already distinguished himself. Unlike Berlusconi he does not dumb down political discourse. Rather than talking down to the masses he
addresses a nation composed of intelligent citizens who prefer being told the bad news and be asked to do something about it than living in an
illusion that all is good and well.
Monti speaks of sacrifices to be made rather than inflating expectations through empty promises or projecting people's fears in a xenophobic direction.
He rightly speaks of the liberalisation of the professions which the right had opposed, easier access to labour market for the young and wants to clamp down on tax evasion. He is the best thing Italy could have in a parliament still dominated by the centre-right.
I do share the concern of those on the left who think Monti's government which includes Corrado Passeri, former CEO of Intesa San Paolo is too associated with the banks which share the blame for the financial mess we are in now.
Another problem is that Berlusconi has already threatened to bring Monti down if he introduces the patriminiale-a tax on wealth favoured by Monti which would give legitimacy to other meausures like a pension reform which would affect privileged sectors of the working class.
But the fact that in a moment of crisis Monti can appeal to the good sense of the centre right and the centre left is a triumph for the politics of mediation and reflexivity.
The greatest risk Italy now faces is the rise of an even more dangerous populism which exploits anger against the surgery and drives a wedge between north and south. Some elements in the Lega Nord in Italy are not so different from those forces which brought about war in former Yugoslavia. But probably Italians including many legisti have enough self respect to avoid such a fate.
Surely in normal circumstances Italy should have elected a responsible government through elections.
Yet one lesson of Italian politics is that the artificial attempt to contain all political views in two rival camps has failed and in some ways Monti represents a more continental way of doing politics through a coalition.
Moreover Italy was not a normal democracy under Berlusconi and restoring faith in the institutions was a priority after the end of the pornographic carnvival of the Berlusconi era.
Democracy is not the simply the rule of elected majorities but a process of democratic mediation involving a plurality of reflexive voices. Berlusconi who befriended autocrats like Vladmir Putin and Muamar Gaddafi held a vision of politics which was more similar to a televoting competition than democratic engagement. In his vision propoganda was the only mediation between the leader and an abstraction called the 'people'.
Like other populists he thrived in an environment where people were insulated from the world. In fact cospolitan Italians felt constantly humiliated by his antics while a vast segment of the electorate ignored all this and believed his hype. Berlusconi appealed to those who think that the world revolves around the few square meters sorrounding them. He was only interested in being loved. Perhaps he had the good sense to bow down when he realised that the people no longer loved him. In fact the redeeming factor in the story was Berlusconi's dignity in exit.
But Italy's saviour was a statesman called Giorgio Napolitano, a relic from an era whose politicians gave Europe peace and prosperity. Napolitano a former partisan represented the reformist wing and pro European wing of the Italian Communist Party.
In fact what Europe requires now is the kind of reflexivity which inspired post world war II christian democratic, liberal and social democratic politicians to build a european social model which is now in crisis but which gave us peace and prosperity for half a century.
At that time Europe had people with vision like Alcide De Gasperi, Konrad Adenuer and Altiero Spinelli.
Technocrats like Monti may fill a gap in an emergency but Europe needs politicians of the calibre of post war generation to recover.
What is sure is that national governments face problems which they can no longer control in isolation. Supranational institutions like the EU is the
only way through which globalisation can be governed and regulated according to social and ecological standards. Otherwise what we will have is a race to
the bottom, in which Europe will become more like China and the United States both in terms of inequalities and political freedoms.
It is no mystery that xenophobic populist parties tend to be the most authoritarian and neo-liberal.
The problem is that the current generation of centre right governments which govern most nation states including France and Germany were always quite sceptical on the European project. While increasingly aware of the need of European solutions, people like Sarkozy have often pandered to national egoism especially when dealing with problems like immigration.
This generation of politicians has failed in creating democratic institutions to regulate a common economic and fiscal policy which became an imperative after the introduction of a common currency.
This would represent a shifting of economic powers from the nation state to a federal state legitimised by new democratic institutions which make European citizenship a reality.
As Joschka Fischer, Germany's Green foreign minister and vice-chancellor from 1998 to 2005,observes 'unless political power in Europe is Europeanized, with
the current confederation evolving into a federation, the eurozone - and the EU as a whole - will disintegrate'.
That would simply mean the end of a perioid of peace and prosperity which characterised our Europe since the end of the second world war, a calamity which will leave European nations weak and their social model under attack as they face competition of China, India and possibly an Ottoman renaissance in the Arab world.
Malta will also have to make choices, on whether it whether to pool more of its sovereignity or to go back to a peripherical existence. The opposition
of both major parties to a tax on financial transactions now favoured even by Sarkozy, shows the weakness of the European commitment strong across the political spectrum.
For while we might momentarily benefit from the highly volatile banking and gaming sectors which can easily move away when they find a better tax regime, our long term prosperity depends on investment in high skills in the green economy which could well be the pillar of the new european social model.