Here is the program of the European Conservatives and Reformists (Ecr) now chaired by Giorgia Meloni
The election of Giorgia Meloni as president of the European Conservatives and Reformists (Ecr) group is a turning point that must be valued. Here's why and what the Ecr programmatic manifesto is. Gianfranco Polillo's analysis
Great news. The election of Giorgia Meloni as president of the European Conservatives and Reformists (Ecr) group is a turning point that must be valued. In the European Parliament that formation is made up of 62 deputies and represents the third force in the parliamentary camp, after the People's Party and the Socialists of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. 14 countries are represented in the group. Its center of gravity (27 deputies) is given by the representatives of Poland. Immediately after comes the Brothers of Italy (6 deputies) and Vox (Spain) with 4 members.
The programmatic basis of the group is given by the Prague Manifesto ( The Prague Declaration ), which was drawn up in 2003. Ten principles indicated:
1) free enterprise, minimum regulation, tax relief, minimum presence of the State, which is entrusted with the defense of individual freedom and personal and national prosperity.
2) freedom of the person and greater democratic responsibility.
3) sustainability, clean energy and energy security.
4) importance of the family as the foundation of society.
5) sovereign integrity of the nation state, opposition to European federalism, subsidiarity.
6) transatlantic security in a revitalized NATO , support for young democracies across Europe.
7) immigration control and an end to abuses in asylum procedures.
8) efficient and modern public services, commitment to rural and urban communities.
9) end of bureaucratic excesses, commitment to greater transparency and fairness in the EU institutions and in the use of EU funds.
Principles that should put an end to the "euro yes" "euro no" catchphrase. In the past it was used very often for obvious political reasons. Weapon, however, less and less effective, as shown by the rise of the Brothers of Italy both in the various elections and in the polls to follow.
The success of Giorgia Meloni, on the international level, is a bit like cheese on macaroni. It crowns a strategy made up of active presence, moderation in envisaging possible solutions. But above all of passion. Of that empathy that arises every time a wider audience understands that they have a genuine character in front of them. Which of course can also be wrong. But while the errors can be corrected, the arrogance of the miraculous ones of power remains in everlasting memory.
As the new leader of a European group, his first problem will have to be to better refine his strategy, taking into account an internal and international situation deeply marked by the crisis induced by the coronavirus. It is, in fact, evident that Italexit's intentions, which also remain on the fringes of the opposition in Italy, are completely out of reality. You can have all possible doubts about the Mes, the Recovery Fund, or the choices of the ECB. But without these ingredients, the Italian mayonnaise would have gone mad for some time and the country pushed into a circle of hell.
Giorgia Meloni, in proposing a confederal approach, realizes these contradictions. This proposal, even beyond its feasibility, allows it to have a dialectical relationship with the current European institutions. Which is not that of "take it or leave it", but of entering into the merits of individual issues, to better defend national interests. There is, therefore, at least against the light, a clear distinction between the rhetoric of "sovereignty" and defending a principle that, from the Risorgimento onwards, has always characterized the history of Italy.
That story that includes not only the Albertine Statute, but the Republican Constitution. So not only the historical overcoming of the old fascist state, but its posthumous condemnation, at the moment in which the interests of the nation were sacrificed by the regime in defense of its own illusory survival, as happened at the time of the Republic of Salò. If these were the implications of that choice, finally, in Italy the chapter of anti-fascist rhetoric could be closed. To leave to historians the task of delineating, at best, the lights and shadows, as has happened for any other period of national history. And rediscover, in the spirit of the nation, the limit to the daily political confrontation.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/ecco-il-programma-dei-conservatori-e-riformisti-europei-ecr-presieduti-ora-da-giorgia-meloni/ on Thu, 01 Oct 2020 05:05:00 +0000.