European elections are not a leadership contest exercise

Here we go again: European elections to flex muscles and see who can jump higher. We spoke about it in the newsroom and wondered what we could write in an editorial today after Premier Giorgia Meloni’s press conference yesterday (Jan. 4) in Rome. The answer was unanimous: nominations for the upcoming European elections scheduled for June 9.

Yes, because for Italy, Strasbourg once again risks being something else. Meloni said yesterday that she was considering running for office to see how popular she was and how much citizens approve of her and her government. She urged PD Secretary Elly Schlein and the leaders of the other parties in the governing coalition, Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvini, to consider the same thing. A survey of sorts, with the number of people consulted far beyond those polled from the various companies in the field. As Meloni said, a consensus check, asking millions of people to rank Italian politicians and then hold weeks of debates and confrontations in the press and on TV.

Too bad, however, that June 9 will mark the election of European legislators, who count more than national ones, if it is true that, according to authoritative calculations, at least 70 percent of national legislation comes from rules decided by governments and parliamentarians in Brussels. Too bad that MEPs cannot be members of national governments, so in the event of an election, even on the wave of a resounding success at the polls, Meloni and the other leaders would either have to abandon the national government to give their best to the European Parliament or they would have to forgo the election and to back to Rome to do their jobs and let, as has happened too many times in the past, the first of the non-elected pass, someone who probably has less political clout. It means using Europe as an instrument, either of propaganda (with attacks, or even appeals, on Eurobureaucrats) or to measure one’s consensus, a duel between leaders. And then say, as Meloni did yesterday, that yes, she would love to have a new right-wing majority in Parliament, but that, after all, even the popular German Ursula von der Leyen could succeed. In short, Italy again will have a marginal role in Europe, an Italy that increasingly votes alone against measures adopted by a large majority, that on the ESM managed to go against everyone, all alone, with others going ahead to safeguard their financial systems while ours will remain unprotected. An Italy that, in the end, stays in the mainstream by confirming von der Leyen in her place.

The decision to be a featherweight with almost no clout. To even consider using European elections as an all-national exercise is to divert attention from the real issues; it is to erase Italy’s planning role in the next legislature because the leading candidates (who would wipe out everyone else’s races with the weight of their names) will never sit in that House, where in their place will go people who will not have been able to present themselves to the voters as they should, who will be chosen, probably, with an internal party logic without even considering whether there is anything in their curriculum that would make them useful in Brussels.

In 2022, commenting on the choice of so many prominent Italian MEPs to leave Strasbourg for the Italian Parliament, we wrote in this newspaper that “the European Union, as it often happens, is mistreated; for one’s career, it is a second choice, for one’s policies either a stick or a carrot to be waved in front of the voters, depending on one’s position, depending on the moment.” And we added why not choose to “show how important the European Union is for Italy, how much Italy cares about its role in Brussels? Because, perhaps, one does not care or, at least, not everyone does. So the European Parliament sometimes turns into a gymnasium for new leaders, but more often, unfortunately, into a golden retirement home for old glories.” Considering the statements of the Premier, the ruling coalition has confirmed the correctness of these forecasts. Unfortunate for Italy.