Threatened by populist superpowers, Europe too needs a dose of patriotism | Lorenzo Marsili

SQueeZed between Few And the Russian and Chinese, the projections, are highlighted by democracies in Europe, such as the remains of the past. The collective excitement and shyness offered in the inauguration of Donald Trump last month may emerge US “Golden Age” Or an arrogance bubble linked to the explosion. China can succeed in reshaping the world in its image, or it may surrender Demographic retreat and Economic recession. Europe is not alone in being at a historical crossroads, but it is exclusively mired in croakDespair and self -gossip.

In 1492, when Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas, Spain began alone Sejlo de OroOr the golden age, the Spanish forces were preparing to take over large parts of Italy. The highest wealth concentration in Europe was found in cities such as Florence, Milan and Venice. Cities of beauty, clothing, industry and trade; Cities, above all, are very fascinated by their own identities that they refused to form a uniform. The end result was the Italian Peninsula section. There was no space for the competing city countries in the world of nations.

There are clear similarities with the fragmentation of Europe today. He faces a world called “so -called”Civilization countriesOrganized on cultural traditions instead of politics, may have assumed national countries. I simply hope that the Russian military expansion is Chinese Industrial dumpingOr the threats of the American tariffs will stimulate the return of ambition within the European -sized European countries that will not be interrupted. Fear, on its own, is a paralyzed factor.

European Union leaders talk about talking about “Strong responses“To targeting Trump’s recent threat in the introductory war. But in reality, they barely exceeded to self -falsification, self -seizure, dread from us and Chinese authority. We instead need to restore boldness and hunger for the future, and to give up some of our polite morals in the world Not really polite.

Certainly, we need to stay faithful to the moral preaching of German philosopher Emmanuel Kant and we continue to believe that an equal world based on the rules will come one day. But in the meantime, to maintain this possibility, we need to get to know, celebrate and fight to defend our common achievements.

Like the United States government Prepare to colonize MarsHe – is Surrender All responsibility for ensuring the continuation of our planet is warming. Trump is also amplified His Mimi currencyThe global agreements are boycotting The minimum corporate taxes. As Amnesty International Investment missiles, despair streets are running out in the United States Steeling drug addiction And poverty.

In all three accounts, Europe is waiting. European Union Global leader In renewable energy, industrial efficiency and climate policy. I have put a unique economy in the social market It limits abuses Unbridled capitalism. High levels of internal solidarity for all may not provide a home to live in, but they provide everyone with a safety network under it that they will not fall.

True, the difficulties are also many. Economic productivity is RetreatingEurope is also located behind China and the United States in the technological race. Europe is unable to defend itself militarily. Energy depends. However, as for the cases of the ancient Italian city, all these problems that cannot be overcome apparently will be solved by one step: a larger unit.

It was the European Union to benefit from the giant, however Feiled capital marketsIt will have the resources necessary to invest in its economic and technological re-launch-and limit the impact of foreign-owned social media such as Tiktok Democracy. If European governments coordinate their defensive spending, they will not have little fear: the European Union member states spend 326 billion euros (270 billion pounds) In 2024 compared to Russia 145 billion euros (121 billion pounds) For 2025, if they speak with one voice, the European Union will have the ability, as modern agreements with South America MERCOSUR Bloc and Mexico Show, to weave deals that would make Europe not only a better place.

Democrats in Europe work together, for example, to be able to discuss Work a coordinated climate with ChinaAnd not only the run -off at the sight of the Chinese EV. We know that a lack of access to capital is the neck of the unusual bottle that prevents developing countries from engaging in green transition. The Chinese-European financing plan shared in the descent in Vietnam, Indonesia, Kenya and Peru, with European wind turbines and Chinese battery systems-simultaneously runs the planet and the use of European and Chinese industrial capacity?

Europe will also be able to protect, in the absence of the United States, a long -term investment in democracy, the rule of law and polygamy. This would contradict the refusal to insist on democratic values ​​as merely a subjective interest of Western hypocrisy. A contradiction as it might seem, which makes Europe power in the world is the most prestigious way to build a world that goes beyond the competition of great power.

Such ambitions are not the issue of left, right, liberal or populism. It is also not the issue of abandoning the national identity of the central bureaucracy of Brussels. They instead, the issue of the desire to be a subject, not just an object, for history.

Take Georgia Meloni’s attempt to become Trump whispered. This is well intended, but it amounts to the cunning of the servant who is trying the king to avoid his anger and win more crumbs from his table. Nationalism should be, Miloni tradition, unlike slavery.

In the end, there is a kind of European civil nationalism or democracy that is what must be strengthened if the Europeans avoid turning into the world’s powerful waiters while they are going to our cities to admire our beautiful past. We need to see something that visual leaders in the European continent often aspire, but they have never been achieved: pluralistic societies coexist in a common European “nation”.

The European nation does not need to be a myth. Instead, it will be based on the idea of ​​always retracting the Italian city countries: unifying what really matters to maintaining their way of life. But whether we decide that this must be in energy security, technology or foreign policy, and regardless of whether we see this happens through the deepening of the European Union or through something new, nothing will change until we reinforce a common sense of European patriotism. If the last experience of the European Union teaches us one thing, then this is that ordinary people do not come out of a common currency. We created a European currency. Now we need to create a European people.

This may seem everything unrealistic. But is it more than ambition to colonize Mars? The construction of a new country called Europe’s adventure can be our Mars adventure and our best bet on fighting despair, self -doubt, fear, pessimism, oligarchy and tyranny.