For the first time in many years, indeed since the post-war period, Italy runs the risk of changing its international position by abandoning the two pillars, Atlanticism and Europe, which have allowed the country to grow in a market economy. The question is whether this change is really in the national interest and in that of Italian citizens. The answer came from Marco Minniti, former Minister of the Interior and architect of a political change that has reduced the arrival of migrants on our coasts by as much as 80% (over 120 fewer people than in the previous 12 months). "Salvini's choice - said Minniti - is equivalent to that of a shepherd who entrusts the guard of his flock to a pack of wolves". In short, trying to make an alliance between sovereigns, as was attempted in Innsbruck with Austria and Bavaria, is absurd and is against our true interests.
At the conference organized by the Fondazione Riformismo e Libertà chaired by Fabrizio Cicchitto, an overall picture was drawn of a rapidly changing international situation where multilateralism is undermined, to return to a system of relations between sovereign countries, as was a century ago. And certainly the affirmation of nationalisms has not done well for Europe and for the world as a whole. But Trump on one side and Putin on the other are pressing Europe to weaken the Union and go back to speaking directly with individual countries. In this way, the USA thinks of strengthening their supremacy, while Putin would not be facing a potentially much stronger entity than Russia, but many small countries in disagreement with each other, with which Russian diplomacy could easily play a role of balance.
The propensity of the current Penta-League government to get closer to Russia is very ambiguous and dangerous. We can dialogue with everyone, but not on Putin's side.
As many of the conference speakers underlined (Latorre, Panebianco, Perissich, Teodori) Europe is going through a dramatic period of crisis. The issue of immigration can be, even more than the Euro, the real detonator that can blow everything up. He explains the reason why a problem that at the moment seems to be on its way to a solution is kept alive in a dramatic way. Landings have decreased, threats are made to close the Brenner pass when not even a single migrant passes, and then there is talk of hotspots in Libya under the control of the United Nations, when they already exist and are selecting those entitled to "refugee" status. (thousands of people, some of whom have been welcomed in Italy), while the Libyan authorities themselves are repatriating migrants who are not entitled to refugee status.
There is a communicative tension (but this is today's politics) which is creating a bubble of irrational sensations which stimulate adventurous policies (Savona's famous plan B to return to monetary sovereignty). If the liberal and reformist political forces fail to quickly restore a principle of reality, the risks that are run on the international scene and in Italy are great and serious.
