“Here is the Matador!”. It may be that you have confused the idioms, but it is with this title that Angela Merkel welcomed Matteo Renzi yesterday in Brussels. Indeed, after an interview at the Quirinale with Giorgio Napolitano, the Italian Premier flew to Belgium to take part in the informal dinner among the 28 big names on the continent which traditionally precedes the European Council. He presented himself on the strength of his recent triumph in the European elections, which with 31 deputies made the Democratic Party the most represented party in the PSE (ahead of the German SPD) and second overall in the European Parliament, right behind the CDU-CSU led by the German chancellor. An historic result, which the Prime Minister now intends to weigh.
“If we want to save Europe, we have to change it – Renzi told his fellow heads of state and government -. With this strength I tell you that even those who voted for us asked to change Europe”. As for the appointments of the commissioners, the Premier flaunted a Latin quotation: “Nomina sunt consequentia rerum, the ancients said. First we have to agree on what to do, then we decide who does it”. Finally, a display of pride: “In Italy our party had 11 million votes and our country was the one with the highest turnout in the EU. We have defeated populism”.
In addition to the choice of new commissioners, which will most likely come after the establishment of a majority of broad agreements, Brussels also has to decide who will be the new president of the European Commission. In the front row, for the moment, is Jean Claude Junker, candidate of the European People's Party, the alignment that has received the highest number of votes on a continental level. However, if neither he nor the PSE candidate Martin Schulz succeeds, Italy could challenge the alternative candidates that have already been proposed (the Pole Tusk, the Finn Katainen and the Irish Kenny), perhaps coming to play the Enrico card Read.
As regards the policies to be undertaken, François Hollande underlined that “the demand for more growth and more jobs comes from France, so we want a reorientation of the European construction. The fact that 25% of French voters voted for the far right is not just a problem for France, but for all of Europe. I am pro-European, but I want Europe to change”.
The European Council, however, cannot ignore the Eurosceptic Marine Le Pen, leader of the Front National, who, after her landslide victory in the European elections, asked the President of the French Republic to call early elections, promising that if she is elected president within six months will present a referendum to ask the French if they want to leave the European Union.
On the international front, Le Pen calls for the negotiations for the EU-US free trade treaty to stop, for Paris to prevent Turkey's entry into the EU and for the French government, in violation of EU rules, to nationalize Alstom, the recently finished industrial giant in the crosshairs of Siemens and above all of General Motors.
An appeal for change also came from David Cameron: “The European Union cannot ignore the results of the elections and carry on as before – said the British prime minister -. We need to change and answer the question of what matters: growth and work. It must be recognized that Brussels intervenes too much, the solution should be given by the States where possible, and by the EU only where necessary".
