It’s time for responsible leaders

The European Union and everything that calls itself “the West” urged to take a step forward at the Davos international summit, as if necessary, for a strong and clear revival of multilateralism and cooperation. In essence, this means taking responsibility and thinking that the world is like a mechanism that is becoming global, where each piece must be able to function at its best or else get stuck and, in some cases, deformed and crushed. A weak piece becomes prey to larger pieces, which make it their own, manipulate it, and erase it. For years the European Union has wrestled with this debate but it does not seem to have reached full maturity. There are still many among the member states who, from the most diverse perspectives and with the most varied objectives, think they can play their own game, partly leaning this way, partly that way, exploiting the Union’s commercial flywheel while perhaps denying its underlying values.

It is time to firmly occupy a space in international politics, trade, industrial production, technology, and climate protection. We need to be resilient but also lead the way. We need to be able to avoid crises such as those of paracetamol and microchip shortages, and we need to become an entity that in foreign policy counts for something, at least the so-called “geopolitical” one, that is, one that concerns the space that is close to us. If only to protect ourselves.

In a few months, four and a half, there will be European elections, which will compose a significant piece of the power framework in the Union. There are hundreds of MEPs here; they don’t all need to be geniuses, but many will have to be. And the parties here have an enormous responsibility: looking beyond the political balances at home. Of course, the ideal would be to have great leaders who make up the lists as best they can. Throughout the Union, we have to make do because even if there are no great leaders (maybe a couple at most will have a chapter dedicated to them in a history book 30 years from now), we want to believe that they are all good people (and not all of them are, we know that too, but mostly maybe they are).

So, our leaders of the various parties can strive to compile good lists of candidates who have something to say and do here in Brussels. All the 27 Member States adopt, obligatorily, the proportional system. Some, like the Germans, have opted for blocked lists, a way to select as much political staff as possible to send here (and often the results, qualitatively, are very good), others, like Italy, have preferences (and therefore getting elected also costs a lot). They are both democratic systems — I am not arguing that now — but they are two systems nonetheless, one more and one less in the hands of the party leaders.

Here is an appeal I make before every election, but this time it’s more urgent than other times: make sure you really send the best people available to Brussels. We really need them.