Getting "en marche" to relaunch Europe: it is the red thread that unites Romano Prodi and Matteo Renzi, the strange couple called by the John Hopkins University of Bologna, to discuss the French elections and the victory of Emmanuel Macron, together with political scientist Marc Lazar. The two former premiers, in a debate open to the public, do not fail to exchange some salacious jokes, but in the end they agree on one point: Europe has a new opportunity and it must not let it slip away. Macron's gamble is difficult, explains Lazar, there are many obstacles to overcome, starting with the June elections, which will give him a parliamentary majority at the moment unpredictable, but after the rejection of the 2005 European constitution, the economic crisis and the of Brexit, perhaps this is the first real good news for the club of 27.
“For years – says Prodi – France had disappeared from the European political scene. Instead we need it, to restore strength to the project, to foreign policy, with a country that has a nuclear bomb and the right of veto in the United Nations. We must archive the times in which Merkel made the decisions and the French held the press conference”. A protagonist like Macron is probably the right man to inaugurate another era, a strong Rome-Berlin axis, which also passes through Rome.
"As Chirac said to a journalist who doubted our ability to join the euro - recalls Prodi - there is no Europe without Italy". With the cousins from beyond the Alps, Renzi observes, a rift has arisen after the Libyan affair of 2011. It is a wound that needs to be healed, for the two countries to start walking together "arm in arm" again, collaborating in a great work of cultural change, to transform "Europe into a place where globalization is more civil and gentle".
For the leader of the Democratic Party, however, keeping the European project alive also means changing it: this way “it doesn't work. The ideal is right, but it must be made stronger and more solid and if Macron has the courage to change things we will all be grateful to him". Eurobonds have already been rejected by the Germans, "but on other points there is an opening - observes Prodi - and perhaps this is the start of a negotiation".
Change, starting from the requests of those who suffer the most from the crisis, of those who espouse populism, because they have no other landing places. "The economic crisis has massacred our countries - argues Prodi - and today the difference is between those who feel 'in' and those who feel 'out'".
According to Renzi “if Europe implements a gigantic plan for the suburbs then it will be able to defeat populism, much more than with proclamations. Italy has put in 2 billion and 100 million, but if Europe does not do its part it is a vain effort: everyone is worried about Lampedusa, I am worried about the suburbs of Brussels, Paris, Marseilles and those of our cities”.
School and work are the key to restoring confidence, to stealing votes from populists, beyond ideologies, beyond the old schemes. “Macron – observes Lazard – did not win with a program, but with a project”. The fences right and left are overcome and the historical parties seem dying, “today, however, Macron must give a signal – argues the political scientist – and this is certainly the reform of the labor market”.
In this context, claims Renzi, Italy is a model, thanks to the Jobs Act. The two countries, according to Prodi, are difficult to compare. “The French have a very strong state, capable of supporting less brilliant and dynamic companies than ours. We have an effervescent manufacturing, but we are suffocated by bureaucracy and in this chapter I also include justice when it is too slow. I have already said, with irony, that if we abolished the TAR we would earn 4 GDP points”. A full blown scrap? "No, the term scrapping - concludes Prodi - I've never liked".
