The Italians, unlike the British, do not contest Europe for what it does, but above all for what we would have liked it to do but it doesn't do because the relative powers have remained with the states. In short, us we would like a more united EU, capable of greater solidarity, with a larger common budget, but with profound contradiction instead of fighting to strengthen the powers of Brussels, we want to go back towards strengthening the powers of individual nations, thus exalting particular interests and nationalisms which will inevitably make progress in community integration more difficult. Among our ruling classes there is a surprising incapacity to fully understand the functioning of a Union that we have also contributed to founding, and generic and negative messages are continually launched which consider the Europe that exists there as "wrong and contrary to our interests". The posters with which Meloni is covering our cities calling for a general change in the EU are emblematic of a way of thinking that involves almost all parties, a large part of the media, and a robust piece of our superficial and uninformed bourgeoisie .
Riccardo Perissich, a profound connoisseur of the European machine, having been director general in Brussels for almost a quarter of a century, takes it upon himself to explain what Europe is, how it works, and above all how we should be there to get the most out of it, with realism advantage. The book written by Perissich, with the significant title "Staying in Europe - Nightmare dream and reality" – published by Bollati Boringhieri, is a broad analysis of the origins of Europe, born, let us never forget, from the overcoming of the historic rivalry between France and Germany, bitter enemies for centuries, of the progress made in almost sixty years, of the successes achieved, and the mistakes made.
The construction of Europe is certainly not perfect. It arises from below, with a pragmatic method, i.e. addressing the problems as they arise. Certainly at the basis there was the dream of a united Europe with a strong federal government, but this has always remained a distant and theoretical goal. In practice, an attempt has been made to build a building by putting brick by brick, reacting to crises, and sometimes making good steps forward as was the case for the single market and for the single currency, two achievements of great importance and which have given stability and expansive capacity to the whole of Europe.
Perissich invites us to be realistic. While in Italy the debate revolves around false news, such as those relating to immigration according to which we would have been "left alone" . Instead, if we look at the data, we discover that if we were really to accept a fair distribution of refugees, we will have to host more migrants and not fewer! Similar reasoning on the economy . We are the only country (apart from Greece) to still be below the pre-crisis income levels of 2008, but the responsibility is ours alone, having wasted energy and political capital of credibility to ask for flexibility, instead of playing our cards on the real possibilities of advancement of EU powers also in the economic and financial field.
Unfortunately, our behavior has also contributed to accentuating the crisis of confidence which today is practically blocking any initiative to advance supranational integration in key sectors such as security and foreign policy, as well as in the banking field and in that of the financing of a part of investments necessary for the productivity of the entire old continent. Always being distant from reality is preventing us from actively participating and constructively to the real debate on the changes needed by Europe, changes that arise from the changed international scenario, from the US disengagement, to the aggressiveness of Russia and China, not to mention the always boiling cauldron of North Africa and the Middle East.
Only united European countries will be able to have a voice in this new complex world scenario. The securities promised by nationalism are illusory and indeed seriously harmful to the citizens of individual countries. Think, to give just one example, of defense. Until now, the whole of Europe has entrusted its defense to the USA, in the future if each country wanted to do it alone how much would it have to tax its citizens to have a minimum level of security?
And then what to do? The battle to preserve the Union and with it liberal democracy deserves to be fought and, as Perissich states, it is perhaps the greatest challenge of this century. The starting point is that of tcourageously bear witness to the truths about Europe, explaining to citizens the advantages and constraints of the system in which we live, finding a position that truly corresponds to our interests and not pursuing the "false truths" that are poisoning the environment in which we live. We start from Perissich's book to begin a journey whose first stage is an aware vote of what is at stake in the next elections on 26 May.
