by Dario Rivolta * –
I had Giorgia Meloni as a parliamentary colleague and I can say that she was always diligent in the task assigned to her by the voters and always participated in the work. However, when she happened to intervene on issues of international politics, I noticed a certain lack of preparation in her knowledge of the facts and a sudden superficiality in calculating the international consequences of the political positions that she defended. Now, as Prime Minister, I can only appreciate you, at least as regards your decisions in internal politics. You are certainly authoritative, you fill your role very well and you let me hope that you will do everything you can for the good of the country. It also seems that, aided by the intellectual vacuum and the organizational collapse of the PD, the popular consensus towards her is rightly growing.
Unfortunately, as far as foreign policy is concerned, I can only disagree with the positions you are taking. I’m not alluding to her ranting towards the “crazed puppet” Zelensky, an attitude that verges on humiliation for her and for the country. Instead, I am alluding precisely to the international position that you are assigning to our country with the complicity of the (understandable) silence of the other majority forces and the unvoiced, or secondary, voice of the opposition.
I believe that it is right to participate in all the international meetings, and this not only because it has to accredit itself and its government, but also to demonstrate, finally, the physical and active presence of Italy on world scenarios from which we have for too long been absent or completely irrelevant.
Surely she is helped by advisers made available by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, perhaps, also by others, but the fact remains that, in my opinion, both she and our Ministry of Foreign Affairs are on the wrong strategic path.
In the past, you and your party were among those considered Euro-skeptics but today it is clear to everyone and to them too that the idea of leaving the EU or the Euro is completely unthinkable and would just be economic suicide . It is understandable that many fear that Europe will fall prey to the Franco-German axis which would marginalize Italy: it is the same concern that Berlusconi had who, in fact, sought other spaces for action by forging closer relations with Great Britain of Blair (successfully), with Spain of Aznar (without success) and cultivating personal relationships with Putin and Bush. Since those years, however, much has changed: Great Britain is gone, Macron in France is without a stable majority and Scholz in Germany heads an even more contradictory coalition than has ever been seen in Italy. It is true that every other day attacks on our government arrive from Paris but, as rightly noted by Meloni herself and by all the analysts, the heavy statements against us are symptoms of a strong malaise in their internal politics and therefore a sign of great weakness. The Franco-German axis has frequent ups and downs and although the two foreign ministries try to collaborate, there are more divergent interests between the two than converging ones. The famous Aachen pact fails to be as effective as the top management seems to want it and, in fact, it works only a little more than the Quirinal Agreement: a lot of smoke and little substance.
What does Meloni do in the face of this situation? You would like to emancipate yourself from Paris and Berlin by trying to forge strong collaboration agreements with Poland and showing yourself to the Americans as the most trusted ally on the whole continent. In other words, instead of using diplomacy to explore which paths could bring us closer to a more integrated Union, you cultivate a new nationalism by seeking shores in the most anti-European and antagonistic countries of an idea of a Europe with a single policy foreign and defense.
Poland, like the other Eastern European states, have recently regained their independence and what they are asking of Brussels, in addition to generous funding, is the guarantee of not falling back under Russian hegemony. Their attitude may be historically understandable but the needs of the founding countries are different. The European Union was born with the prospect of moving towards ever greater integration and, even if this path has been betrayed several times, it remains a fundamental concept even among those who only feel disappointment and contempt for the current leaders of the Union.
As far as the USA is concerned, it is clear that today and for a certain time we will not be able to do without it, but this means that our decisions are far from autonomous and remain subject, first and foremost, to American interests. In this regard it is absurd to have no illusions: history has already shown that the USA is extremely unscrupulous in always and only pursuing its own interests. They know how to disguise themselves well in the eyes of the unprepared by constantly waving the great ideals of democracy and freedom but it is under the eyes of those who watch real events and not propaganda that, when it suits them, they do not hesitate to support totally illiberal states and to collapse with more or less obvious means Countries that may be democratic but not friendly. The strategy of the Americans has always been consistent, whatever the majority, whether Democrat or Republican. Only a superficial like Trump allowed himself to admit to the world that American interests came before everything and any ideal. And only fanatics like the neo-conservatives have come to put in writing that any means would have been good to prevent anyone from jeopardizing American supremacy in the world.
Their attitude towards Europe has always had two objectives: to prevent our continent from emancipating itself from their control and, to this end, also to make impracticable the possibility that Russia’s natural wealth could somehow be combined with capital and European know-how. If this had happened, the resulting economy would not only become a potential competitor to them, but a political peace between Brussels, Berlin, Rome, Paris and Moscow could make the American troops scattered across our continent no longer necessary, formally for our defence.
Today Warsaw is carrying out in Europe the task that once belonged to Great Britain, namely as an American watchdog to prevent European ambitions towards a closer union and a possible decision-making autonomy. That their allies are just a tool used only as long as it suits them and remains obedient is demonstrated by what happened to “friend” Berlusconi. His relationship with Putin, at a certain point, was judged “dangerous” and, also thanks to his superficiality in private relations, the scandal that crippled him broke out.
Believing that she is cultivating a neo-nationalism, Giorgia Meloni (and with her the nobodies today in Brussels and in the various European capitals) are rather slavishly following the interests of overseas without realizing that they are contributing to crippling the economy of the entire continent (one of American targets). The rift that has arisen with Russia (and its reserves of raw materials), if it will ever be possible to remedy it, will take decades to rebuild.
What I reproach Palazzo Chigi is for not considering what is obvious to all observers and that is that the safeguarding of our current well-being has only one possibility: a Europe certainly smaller than the current 27 but politically and economically more integrated. The only leader in Europe who seems to have understood and preached this is Macron. Too bad he only does it in words and, in deeds, continues to cultivate traditional French chauvinism. There is, however, to be understood since today, for the reasons explained above, he would in any case have no interlocutors, either in Germany or elsewhere.
If our foreign policy were wiser, instead of slavishly obeying Washington’s diktats or seeking absurd proximity with the Poles, we would try with Berlin, Paris and Madrid to prepare all the conditions for the indispensable path towards a federation of European states .
It is not an easy road and no one hides that even behind Macron’s beautiful words there is always the Gaullist design of a “leading” France for the whole continent. However, the task of a wise and capable diplomacy is to seek, even discreetly, where the weaknesses of others lie, try to insinuate themselves into them and in the meantime find partners willing to build, in the necessary ways and times, the premises for a profound revision of the Treated. In the globalized world, with new large powers and with a scenario in which the future bipolarity will reappear under the faces of the USA and China, a Europe broken up into many states would always and only be a “minor client”, the object of any bullying and serves the interests of others.
* Former deputy, he is a geopolitical analyst and expert in international relations and trade.
