(Markus Spiske, Unsplash)
This article was written for The European Sting by one of our readers, Mr. Tommaso Merlo. The opinions expressed within reflect only the writer’s views and not necessarily The European Sting’s position on the issue.
Only citizens can build a European Republic. National governments have failed because they do not want it. They don’t want to lose their power. And still today they go to Brussels to defend their interests and to impose their vision. They go there to take, not to give.
They go there to put their foot down like they are attending an “apartment block meeting”. Meanwhile, the entire European project is increasingly at risk due to the new nationalist wave. It is useless to waste more time.
Only a bottom-up political movement can generate enough momentum to overcome national fears and selfishness and create a politically and socially united Europe. If citizens really want their European Republic, they must democratically fight for it, not wait to be given to them. History teaches.
Many EU member states won regional differences before uniting under the same national flag. The same process must happen for Europe. Only in this way the nascent continental Republic will reflect Europeans cultures and values and will therefore have a long life. So far, the European unification process has only been a matter of economic and security convenience.
We have shared resources, markets, currency and we have signed mutual treaties to avoid the war-madness of the last century. Politically, however, the unification process has been held back by national egoism and the myopia of ruling classes that are not culturally European yet.
An unnerving inertia that is bringing the obsolete nationalism back. As if many European citizens, seeing that we do not proceed forward convinced themselves that going back is the only solution. Citizens who are struck by an endless economic crisis, who are shocked by epochal changes such immigration and who want political answers that this European Union is not able to provide.
Because politically never really born, because weakened by partisan interests, because restricted to a financial club and a cold bureaucracy. The actual EU institutional and political asset is completely inadequate to lead towards an European Republic. To get there you need a new popular constituent process based not only on ideals but also on concrete reasons.
Today the world is swaying between United States and China and other continental actors are making their way. The old and fragmented Europe appears to be a faint chorus of jarring voices. Instead of having an impact, Europe struggles to follow events. A situation that is convenient for those who lead the world only. Big issues affecting people’s lives today are all global.
Economic crisis, mass immigration, environmental emergencies and climate change as well as conflicts afflicting entire regions. Only a united continental Republic can have enough political mass to deal with such global problems. Single nations are powerless and therefore, today millions of Europeans are unable to have a real impact on global issues because they don’t have a political institution able to represent their voice at the global level.
A democratic right that is actually denied to them. But despite everything, the European dream did not die in citizens hearts yet. It resists despite the unification process seems in great difficulty. But it is useless to waste more time, nationalists are gaining strength.
If European citizens really want their continental Republic, they must democratically fight to build it.
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