With the arrival of Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée "the one-way European summits, in which Merkel gave the doctrinal line and the other heads of government held the press conferences, will end, I hope". This was stated by Romano Prodi, former president of the Italian Council and of the European Commission, in an interview published today in La Repubblica.
“The Franco-German engine will start working again with two pistons – he added – as it should be”. In this way, according to Prodi, "it will be able to coagulate the consensus of other major countries, such as Italy and Spain, restoring the dialectic that has made Europe move forward".
As for Macron, “he is a French liberal – the former Premier underlined – a free economy but directed by an efficient state: an idea that he extends to all of Europe. I find it right to defend the European interest rather than the merely national one”.
Prodi then explains the disappearance of traditional political parties in France by pointing out that, “with the sole exception of Germany”, throughout Europe “the clash is no longer between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie but between cultured urban classes and subcultural peripheries. The old parties become electoral machines that no longer have a social function, they are unable to understand and represent the contradictions of society”.
