Comments on: European Elections and the Rout of the Left http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/06/european-elections-and-the-rout-of-the-left/ a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and social justice Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:07:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Michael Kenny http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/06/european-elections-and-the-rout-of-the-left/#comment-47998 Michael Kenny Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:46:11 +0000 http://dissidentvoice.org/?p=8637#comment-47998 The secret of the EU's ongoing success is that it is not the result of a dogmatic project but a pragmatic reaction to day to day events inspired only by the determination that Europe should never again be involved in war and that therefore, it must come together and stick together. That concept has unfailingly worked since 1952 and the mistake that is commonly made by commentators is to apply to it the criteria of the "legalised bully" inherent in the concept of the nation state which emerged from the French Revolution. Indeed, Mr Volpi himself falls into that trap when he interprets the low turnout in the European Parliament elections to "disaffection". Quite the contrary! It indicates that European voters are largely satisfied with the current constitutional position. It's always easy to get out a "no" vote, as the various referenda show. The fact that Europe's "crazies" were unable to get more than a handful of votes in a low poll shows just how marginal they are and how limited dissatisfaction with the functioning with the EU institutions actually is among the electorate. For the same reason, Mr Volpi is also wrong to regard the 2004 enlargement as "a terrible, tragic mistake". Those countries were let in a lot earlier than they would normally have been but I think the reason for that is that US neo-liberal gurus descended on those countries after the overthrow of the dictatorships with a view to setting up a US-dominated counterweight to the EU, with the ultimate aim of the destroying the latter's implicit challenge to US hegemony. The EU, basically, had little choice but to head them off at the pass and, in practice, the thing hasn't worked out badly. Also, for the reason I mentioned in the first paragraph, I don't think the infamous IMF criteria will ever actually be applied in Europe. As for Mr Volpi's final point: "There is only one possibility for Europe: sticking together, and talking with one voice. But it has to be the voice of the people, rather than lobbies and monetarism", I couldn't agree more and I don't doubt for an instatn that that is precisely what is in the process of happening! The secret of the EU’s ongoing success is that it is not the result of a dogmatic project but a pragmatic reaction to day to day events inspired only by the determination that Europe should never again be involved in war and that therefore, it must come together and stick together. That concept has unfailingly worked since 1952 and the mistake that is commonly made by commentators is to apply to it the criteria of the “legalised bully” inherent in the concept of the nation state which emerged from the French Revolution.

Indeed, Mr Volpi himself falls into that trap when he interprets the low turnout in the European Parliament elections to “disaffection”. Quite the contrary! It indicates that European voters are largely satisfied with the current constitutional position. It’s always easy to get out a “no” vote, as the various referenda show. The fact that Europe’s “crazies” were unable to get more than a handful of votes in a low poll shows just how marginal they are and how limited dissatisfaction with the functioning with the EU institutions actually is among the electorate.

For the same reason, Mr Volpi is also wrong to regard the 2004 enlargement as “a terrible, tragic mistake”. Those countries were let in a lot earlier than they would normally have been but I think the reason for that is that US neo-liberal gurus descended on those countries after the overthrow of the dictatorships with a view to setting up a US-dominated counterweight to the EU, with the ultimate aim of the destroying the latter’s implicit challenge to US hegemony. The EU, basically, had little choice but to head them off at the pass and, in practice, the thing hasn’t worked out badly. Also, for the reason I mentioned in the first paragraph, I don’t think the infamous IMF criteria will ever actually be applied in Europe.

As for Mr Volpi’s final point: “There is only one possibility for Europe: sticking together, and talking with one voice. But it has to be the voice of the people, rather than lobbies and monetarism”, I couldn’t agree more and I don’t doubt for an instatn that that is precisely what is in the process of happening!

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