A Continental Political Party

This article was written by one of our passionate readers, Mr. Tomasso Merlo. The opinions expressed within reflect only the writer’s views and not The European Sting’s position on the issue.

A continental political party is needed for European political unification to proceed. A party that represents all the pro-European citizens spread across the continent. A new party which does not refer to any political culture of the past and which has as its main purpose the foundation of a unitary European democracy and the historical overcoming of national democracies. European political unification has been stalled for decades now.

This is because national traditional parties are not culturally ready to make the epochal transition from the era of nations to the continental one. But there is more. For traditional parties and their national ruling classes, European political unification is not convenient because they would lose their power. Europe for them is only a vague purpose to mention in their official speeches, but in reality they are against it.

They are not ready to reduce their nation states to European “regions” or “provinces” and to unite with the other ruling classes of the continent. In recent decades, an anti-European wind has even risen, especially as a result of the fears generated by terrorism, mass immigration and the great social changes underway. Fears that have fueled a “nationalist” wind and the illusion of being able to stop global changes with national borders; the illusion of being able to tackle global problems with obsolete and outdated nations. T

his has led to the paradox of many politicians who enter the European parliament not only culturally not ready for a continental democracy, but who are even against it and sabotage the project from within the European institutions. A situation aggravated by hypocrisy. Traditional national parties prevent the continental project from advancing and when Europe proves inadequate, instead of taking responsibility for it, they blame Europe.

If Europe is just a cold, lobby-infested bureaucracy as anti-European propaganda claims, the real culprits are in Rome, Paris and Berlin, not Brussels. With the pandemic we have seen some timid reaction from Europe, but only for self-interest. The timid steps forward in Europe are made only if it suits the member states and never out of genuine ideal momentum.

National politics has national blinders, pursues national interests and rides national selfishness and fears. Only a continental political party can generate that popular push sufficient to overcome the stalemate we are in. A party that represents the new European culture that is emerging especially among the new generations who in this new and increasingly interconnected paradigm are overcoming cultural and linguistic barriers as well as geographical ones.

A nascent European people that looks forward and not backward, that chooses mutual trust and not fear, that chooses evolution and not conservation, that chooses cooperation and not selfishness. A European people who see Europe not as a rhetorical word, but as a concrete and increasingly indispensable political objective.

The international scenario and its problems are already all “continental” and the nations alone are powerless and useless. If Europeans remain divided, they are destined to suffer global problems instead of solving them. If they remain divided, the Europeans will continue to suffer the will of the others Superpowers without being able to really affect their common destiny.

The foundation of a unitary European democracy is an epoch-making step that is increasingly urgent and crucial, and to be able to achieve it, a continental political party is more and more needed.