There should be no doubt that something is seriously rotten in the state of Shakespeare’s Denmark as far as Brussels is concerned. The march of the populist Far Right across the continent is being helped and abetted by centre-rightist interests within the European Union itself, gradually sprouting what is not only a very dangerous strain of poison ivy but also a major political conundrum the end of which is certainly not in sight. Electioneering Italy is the best current example.
The picture of a few days ago shows European Parliament President Antonio Tajani coming from behind EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and corrupt-proven Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi, to take them from the shoulders after talks on the Italian magnate’s plans regarding the EU should he be in a position to run the government in Rome, said it all.
With many of Europe’s left-wing parties in disarray as they tear into each other after having rendered themselves irrelevant to people’s present-day realities, extreme political sources are having a field day. They are threatening the very existence of the Union and quickly cutting into the ailing heart of nations that once upheld values that nurtured genuine social integration and tolerance, the protection of workers’ and families’ rights, and strong economic pursuits based on fairness and opportunity.
The shocking advent of President Donald Trump in the US and the Brexit events have not helped with the confusion, of course. Both absorbed in populist opportunism, they have continued to fan division, instigate racist attitudes and nationalistic ardour, and encourage what is blatant economic myopia.
Europe’s utter helplessness with extremism is nowhere more evident than in the case of Ryszard Czarnecki who is one of the 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament where Berlusconi’s blue-eyed boy Tajani, yes, him again, has been under pressure to enforce Rule 21 of the assembly’s rules of procedure for the first time and force him out of his post. Brussels-based news outlets recently described how senior MEPs and officials were surprised to find Czarnecki chairing a plenary session “given leaders of four of the five biggest groups in the Parliament want him sacked” for comparing fellow Polish MEP Roza Thun to a Nazi collaborator.
The story took an even more crooked twist with revelations that Tajani’s decision to allow Czarnecki to chair a recent plenary session (during which, by the way, the controversial London-born Pole refused to allow MEPs to speak if they wanted to complain about him being there) came on top of pressure Berlusconi’s poodle is putting on European People’s Party leader and colleague Manfred Weber, the Malteaser who happens to think in “final solution” terms, to withdraw his support for the sacking. We now even have an obscure Scottish MEP aspiring to join the squad of obsessed Malteasers by calling for the resignation of Joseph Muscat. The betting, however, realistically makes him more the odds-on favourite to quickly disappear from the European scene immediately Brexit comes to fruition.
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Ooh la la the French baguette
Add to all this the severe attack of Russophobia and you have it on a silver plate – the slow dismembering of Europe. For example, while French President Emmanuel Macron has been dedicating precious time to making sure France’s famous baguette joins the Neapolitan pizza and Belgian beer as officially recognised cultural treasures (can’t we butt in to demand the same status for our ħobż biż-żejt and ftira?), accredited journalists from RT France have been barred from Elysee Palace events, instantly establishing the protection of the French baguette as more important than the freedom of expression.
Yet another example: A British general, Sir Nicholas Carter, has now described Russia as the “biggest state-based threat to the UK since the Cold War”, going as far as warning that hostilities could begin a lot sooner than the UK expects. And all we’ve seen in recent months are Russian warships going through the English channel, pretty much the same way British and American warships ply the Mediterranean (we have just had one US warship in Grand Harbour) and the Black Sea, and Russian fighter bombers flying outside national air spaces, again in exactly the same way British and American planes do all over the world.
This sad and worrying trait in Western paranoia is all part of an overriding campaign that has its roots in world trade and economic one-upmanship and not guns or ideologies. The West sees itself losing more of its importance as new, stronger players come onto the global scene and, of course, they don’t like it, and the chief victim is the dream of a united Europe with all its hopes and aspirations.
It is probably already too late to ask Quo Vadis Europe. This surreal scenario has taken the form of a tragicomedy, with political adversaries within the same fold constantly trying to catch their own tails across colours and frontiers that were once thought extinct. Yet here you still get some people, those very people who did not want it in the first place, who question the validity of Malta’s neutrality.
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Valletta 2018 spectacle
On the more positive side of things European, the Valletta 2018 spectacle threw a magnificent light on the reality of modern-day Malta, the smallest EU state but certainly one of the most successful in recent years. There is no better communicating tool than culture to portray this fact, especially after the recent spate of bad press, some of it inevitable, much of it motivated by partisan and personal agendas.
We all have our causes of disagreement and on-going national debate on all matters is a democratic driving force, but for some disgruntled, ex-power brokers within the Nationalist Opposition to come out sounding so hollow and sham about the Valletta 18 inaugural celebrations was both shocking and revealing. They are just too immersed in their own negativity.
Instead of rejoicing with the multitudes that happily joined the revelry in the four public squares of the capital hosting the magnificent programme, they have chosen to criticize and pinprick the whole event. They did exactly that during last June’s electoral campaign and we all know what they got for that.