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Rome, 19 August – It is obviously logical that “sovereignism” – expressed in these words to greatly simplify the issue – has never represented a unitary or coherent thought. In recent years, some have interpreted it almost as if it were one “fad”, especially after the Northern League’s ideological debacles between 2020 and 2022, when Matteo Salvini’s party had given up on practically all the key issues. Yet the collapse that followed for the Northern League should have made people reflect, rather than “escape”: in recent years people have voted and continue to vote for those they perceive as anti-system or at least declare themselves eager to “change it from within” . Slogan as critical as you want, but representative of the way citizens react to the phenomena. These European elections certify the trend once again.
Sovereignty is a word not to be thrown away
Do you remember the photo in this article? It was 2015 and Euroscepticism was in full fanfare in terms of declarations, both in Italy and in France. The word itself, “sovereignism” has practically disappeared from the radar in recent years. Almost as if it were a thought considered unsuitable for the “new” – so to speak – paths, not very “useful” in paving the most profitable ones. Nevertheless, there is no logical reason to exclude the topic from present and future reflections. Compared to the 2014 European elections, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge: the EU has faced at least two crises (that of Mario Draghi’s famous “whatever it takes” up to the latest of Covid, not to mention the farmers’ protests) , had to deal with its obvious contradictions and the incompatibility of its model with serious development prospects, even for the country that gained the most from its constitution (Germany), but above all the aforementioned Euroscepticism, a sentiment considered heretical previously, it not only became “possible”, but actually engaging half of the voters entitled. In various forms, let it be clear, because none of the overwhelmingly voted parties allow themselves to even discuss the existence of the so-called Union in its pseudo-institutional form. But they go around it, they play with a now deep-rooted public exasperation, they call out to the people (albeit in a confused way). And, in the end, they win. Of course, they still do not eliminate the strong “Europeanist thought”, represented by the EPP, but it would have been sensational to observe it. But they win. They keep winning. In any case, they certify a path that began about ten years ago and has not yet stopped, at least for now.
Listen to people
Meloni who claims to be driving wins “Italy that changes Europe”, Marie Le Pen wins, defeating Emmanuel Macron, becoming the leading French party and forcing the president to call new legislative elections, AfD wins, exceeding 16% of the votes in Germany. This, let us repeat, regardless of concrete reality. If we look at that, Marie Le Pen was the first in Europe to abandon strong tones by transforming the Front National into the Rassemblement in 2017, moreover without even having gone into government but “only” with a party that had become mass and – at the time – and follower of the more liberal and pro-European ones (whether it was the so-called socialists of Francois Hollande or the En Marche! of the future head of the Elysée Macron matters little today). She was the first to generate a sort of “Fiuggi transalpina“, although rather silent. The truth is that people continue to perceive it as highly discontinuous, as the Germans do for the AfD and the Italians do for Giorgia Meloni.
Excluding the usual PD stronghold, which is on the rise also thanks to the limited turnout, those who presented themselves as innovators also won in Italy. Let’s repeat it: regardless of the concrete conduct of the winners, fewer and fewer people actually have the desire to preserve this shack. It is clear that Meloni in the front row in describing “Italy that changes Europe” has an impact. It is clear that the Northern League owes its ruin to the “institutionalized” politics in the painful years of government with Draghi and that the desperate attempt to reverse it dialectically (even with the clumsy candidacy of Roberto Vannacci) did not work, given that, from the data, the Northern League supporters were also overtaken by Forzi supporters devoted to the “eternal Berlusconi”.
Sovereignism does not represent a coherent thought but perhaps we should think about formulating one, instead of continuing to throw away the feeling itself as if it were a used handkerchief. Ordinary people, as is logical, cannot have this task, distracted by their continuous daily dramas and by an impoverishment that has been proceeding incessantly for decades. There are those in the cultural universe who could do it. Maybe starting with a very small activity: listening.
Stelio Fergola
