The evening meal on the European election day was low key: my husband was constantly reading updates about the results while I was moaning about them. I still don’t get this idea of voting for a party which does not represent your interest, just because the party you voted for last time is not delivering as you hoped for. To me is like you have a serious injury on your foot and you cannot walk where you want, but instead of looking for a suitable cure for the injury, you simply cut the foot, hoping to walk faster on one foot only. One might say that if the remaining foot is healthy, it might get you somewhere, but the problem here is then of different nature: the likelihood that a new law will make walking with one foot illegal. Then what?
I am in mourning for Europe, for despite all its problems, it is a great political project that delivers much more than meets the eyes. And yes, it does deliver also to those who despise the EU and are hoping and/or working for its collapse.
I once translated a document for the European Commission from Chinese into English; it was about the safety of toys and children clothing. There is rapid alert system in the EU, which blocks the selling of goods, which could damage public health, in this case that children or babies. I don’t have children, but I was impressed and glad to read how detailed the notices where. Warnings such as mechanical defects of bicycles which might cause injuries when riding it, or how a string of a children hooded jacket could potentially get stuck and strangle the child or a decoration on a shoe, which could easily fall off and be ingested by a small child would cause the product to be forbidden in the market until the safety issue has been addressed.
Consumer protection at the EU level is only one examples where EU regulations issued make our life easier, safer, better…but many of these benefits are so embedded in our life, that most people take them for granted and don’t notice them anymore.
The result of the EU election is in the end how democracy works, there is a constant ebb and flow; both those who did not bother voting and those who voted for a less free and open EU are part of the democracy like anyone else. I hope that the internal structure of the EU will be strong enough to resist the attack of the far-right parties and that the next five years will show that far-right parties are not automatically better at delivering, while at the same time they create a climate of fear, division and restriction, where the losers are more often than not the weakest in the society. Until one day we are all caught in a hideous net of hate and fear, where the pain spreads across all walks of life. Hopefully history will not repeat itself.
These few lines sparked many other thoughts, in particular about Italy’s political development in the last 40 years. It is disheartening how in its recent history Italy has been in the hands of parties, which are at the government basically because people did not bother voting. Let’s be very clear, these parties do not represent the Italian people, they represent the majority of those Italians who went voting.
Voting can make a difference: it allows for a healthy democratic exchange and shift between different opinions. If you don’t go voting, the system will lose its fragile balance and somebody else will choose your life for you.
If you want to walk, don’t cut your leg: look for the cure.