Welcome back is the return to newsstands ofUnit, historic newspaper of the PCI and then of the PD, which with its presence enriches the democratic pluralism of information and voices even if not always shared. An extensive interview with Massimo falls into this category D'Alema, former secretary of the PDS and former premier and now President of the Italianieuropei Foundation.
"It is disheartening - says D'Alema - that faced with the tragedy of war, the EU is only able to produce munitions" and has not sought "a political solution to the conflict" between Russia e Ukraine. And again: "For a large part of the world, when we Europeans say that an event of unheard-of gravity has occurred in Ukraine and a sovereign state has been violated and there is an aggressor and one attacked, we are not credible". We know the faults of the West and Europe from Iraq to Libya and not only, but does this mean that today we don't have the right to support the attacked country, Ukraine, and to condemn the Russian aggressor? What should we do to be credible? Shut up and leave Ukraine to the slaughter of the invaders? Perhaps some distinction is imposed on D'Alema's interview.
D'ALEMA: THREE OBSERVATIONS ON THE INTERVIEW WITH THE UNIT
First question: Europe is only capable of giving weapons to Zelensky? But without those weapons, Ukraine's fate would be sealed, with many salutes to the one-way pacifists who always forget to protest against Russia. Second: "Is there no trace of a European political initiative" to resolve the conflict? Unfortunately we do not discover today the fragmentation of Europe but we cannot forget the isolated attempts of the French president Macron to bring the Russian dictator to the negotiating table Putin, perhaps amidst the sarcastic smiles of Melenchon and also of that part of the Italian left which detests the Euro-reformist Macron. Third: is it permissible to recall and oppose the autocratic, nationalist and imperialist design with which Putin seeks to shift the world's center of gravity eastwards or should we benevolently overlook it by considering it irrelevant? There is not a word about this in D'Alema's interview.
D'ALEMA, A SMART BUT ONE-WAY LESSON
Neither amnesia nor ambiguity is allowed on two points: 1) preparing the ground for the start of peace negotiations is sacrosanct but the outcome of the battle on the field is not an independent variable and sending our weapons to Kiev means help Zelensky strengthen his negotiating power for a just peace, i.e. that he does not consider the invaded Ukrainian territories Russian forever; 2) it is perfectly fine to try to prepare the negotiating ground but the contents of a desirable agreement cannot be dictated by the West and not even by China, but it is up to the parties involved and it is up to Ukraine to decide what it deems right or not ( “We don't need mediators,” Zelensky told al Pope), as Mario Draghi often wisely recalled and as Macron underlined several times.
The world is not just black or white, but without them I distinguish the equidistance between Ukraine and Russia, between democracy and autocracy, it winds dangerously. And President D'Alema's lesson certainly appears astute but inevitably one-way.
