REMEMBERING THE PAST

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REMEMBERING THE PAST

?I have the feeling that many Europeans have forgotten their past, and if they know it at all, it is after a new memory has been created that distorts reality. If we want to see positive change in Europe, we need to reflect on the past and learn from what has happened.

I will refer to the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences. The former was held from 4 to 11 February 1945, before Germany's surrender. During the Yalta Conference, the Western Allies had liberated all of France and Belgium and were fighting on Germany's western border. In the east, Soviet forces were 65 km from Berlin, having pushed the Germans back from Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. It was no longer a question of German defeat. The issue was the new shape of post-war Europe.

The Potsdam Conference was a meeting held in Potsdam, near Berlin, between 17 July and 2 August 1945. The participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, the most powerful of the allies that defeated the Axis powers in the Second World War. The heads of government of these three nations were the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (later Clement Attlee) and the American President Harry S Truman, respectively. ly.

Among the decisions made, the new German and Polish borders stood out. All German territories in Eastern Prussia were awarded to Poland, and all Polish territories east of the Curzon Line were awarded to Russia. The so-called Oder-Neisse line was established as the border between Germany and Poland. It was also decided to resettle the German minorities in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia within the new German borders. Millions of Germans were expelled from their homes and millions of Poles were incorporated into Russia. It was also decided that Europe would be divided into two zones of influence. The Russian zone of influence comprised the nations of Eastern Europe, and the nations of Western Europe formed the American zone of influence. The countries affected by these decisions had no say in the matter. Perhaps peace in Europe and its economic recovery have been the result of those agreements.

Putin and Trump know their history and it looks like they want to end the current war in Europe through a similar process. As in 1945, it may be the case that the European countries have no say. After all, Eastern Europe has already evolved against what was agreed between Stalin and Truman. The reality was changed by Gorbachev's destruction of the Soviet Union in 1991. From that date onwards, the United States has extended its power to the borders of Russia, almost completely eliminating the influences agreed in the past. The recovery of Russia and the relative weakening of the United States once again raise the question of new areas of influence in Europe and it is possible that Putin and Trump will repeat what their countries have already done in the past, with fewer problems than then, since today there is no British Empire as there was in the first half of the 20th century, nor is there another Churchill, or anybody like him, unless we believe that the dream of the European Union will resist the new masters of the world, especially China, which also remembers the mistreatment it suffered at the hands of the winners of the World War. In Chinese schools, a phrase is always present, teaching the pupils: ‘Never forget the humiliation to which China was subjected’

And meanwhile, in Eastern Europe, the countries that look to Russia as a desirable ally are growing in number, and the frustrated French and the new German socialists, as nationalistic as ever, are rattling their sabres to frighten impressionable neighbours such as Spain or Italy. Those who now want Ukraine's voice to be present in the talks between Putin and Trump are the same ones who denied Germany any voice after its defeat. Hopefully the spirit of neutrality that has helped Europe so much in the past could be recovered.

In my opinion, we and the Italians should focus on what is happening on our borders with North Africa and not on what is happening on the distant Russian borders, and recognise that the threats of Islamic fundamentalism are something tangible in our daily lives.