Why after so many years I decided to get involved in politics and I chose Emma Bonino's Party #PiùEuropa

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Marco?

English Draft Article

Why - after so many years I decided to get involved in politics and why I chose + Europe

https://www.pensalibero.it/perche-ho-scelto-di-rimpegnarmi-in-politica-dopo-tanti-anni/

by Marco Mayer*

I was elected delegate for Riccardo Magi's ImMAGIna + Europa list at the + Europa National Congress next week (February 24-26, Rome ), party to which I signed since only three months. Why did I decide to get involved in politics after so many years of absence? And why in +Europe?

I chose to get involved in politics because I don't like the air one is breathing in Italy. To be clear, I'm not referring so much to Giorgia Meloni's foreign policy, whose clear support for the Ukrainian resistance I share.

https://www.startmag.it/mondo/governo-meloni-rapporti-cina/,

as for a series of domestic events (political and otherwise) which - I hope I'm wrong - could herald a phase of cultural obscurantism.

Each of us - I appeal to all generations - should reflect well on the facts I am about to point out and ask ourselves whether it is not the case to dedicate a small part of our free time to a civic and/or political commitment.

What am I referring to? A first assessment is that I find the positions taken by some government officials annoying. I refer in particular to Ministers Matteo Piantedosi (witch hunt against NGOs) and Carlo Nordio (case/Dalmastro/Donzelli).

Regardless of any legal implications, it is sad to see a Minister of the Interior pointing his finger at humanitarian organizations such as Médecins Sans Frontières or Emergency which have been appreciated all over the world for decades for the courage and professionalism of their doctors and nurses.

As Emma Bonino and Riccardo Magi recalled yesterday

https://www.piueuropa.eu/il_decreto_ong_favoreggiamento_all_omissione_di_soccorso it is unacceptable that the government legitimizes and favors in practice (and even subliminally) the omission of aid with a Decree Law.

https://www.pensalibero.it/il-decreto-legge-ong-tra-verita-e-propaganda/

The images of unaccompanied minors forced off the MSF ship in the distant port of La Spezia and then sent back by the Interior Ministry by bus to Foggia have seriously damaged Italy's international reputation. Antonio Tajani also made a bad slip in this matter. The head of the Farnesina did not have the courage to say a word against Berlusconi after the attack on Zelensky despite the fact that his speach aroused very harsh reactions in the world of European conservatives and the EPP. EPP this evening cancelled meeting in Naples after Berlusconi attacks Zelenskyy

https://www.politico.eu/article/epp-cancels-eu-election-meeting-italy-silvio-berlusconi-volodymyr-zelenskyy-vladimir-putin/

Berlusconi apart from Antonio Tajani has also uttered really unhappy and ungenerous words about the NGOs involved in relief efforts in the Mediterranean. How can humanitarian ships be defined as "sea taxis" when they have saved and are saving so many human lives every day in the Mediterranean? We're not kidding. If in Florence someone defined the Misericordie ambulances as taxis (which incidentally have a thousand years of humanitarian assistance behind them) a popular revolt would break out.

I say this with all due respect to the backbreaking work of taxi drivers in the traffic jams of our cities. When NGO ships are engaged in rescue operations (like military and civilian ships) they act not as taxis, but as real "sea ambulances" complete with doctors and paramedics on board.

I must add that I did not expect a well-prepared and coherent magistrate like Carlo Nordio who became Minister of Justice to hide behind the fig leaf of a legal expedient (the institution of "administrative supervision") to cover up the behavior - reckless and indecorous - both on the level of public and political ethics of the irresponsible couple Dal Mastro/Donzelli.

Anyone with a minimum of experience knows perfectly well that communications between 41 bis prisoners must not be made public because they can offer important insights for preventive police, for the capture of fugitives, for national and international investigations against organized crime and terrorist organizations. I'll spare you the reactions at Europol. https://www.startmag.it/mondo/caso-cospito-donzelli-monitoraggio-carceri/

But the cultural climate in which we live worries me about the behavior of individual members of the center right. I'm not referring to the victory of the centre-right coalition, but to the rampant abstention that involved 60% of the citizens who voted, a terrible sign of distrust of the Italian Democratic Institutions.

In my opinion, all the premises are in place for a shock wave of an indifferent and obscurantist matrix that would do great harm to Italy. The question does not concern only the center right, but all the political parties that all have (majority and opposition) the moral obligation of a cultural and moral regeneration.

To prevent obscurantist visions it is necessary to rediscover the critical spirit and rediscover the values of a libertarian approach. In terms of the competition of ideas, it is especially necessary to highlight the false liberalism that characterizes the most conservative currents of Catholic thought that go far beyond Salvini's rosary.

certainly entirely legitimate, but also very regressive, should it become common sense of the nation.

https://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo /210097.html

Writing about common feeling (senso comune) Alessandro Manzoni writes in chapter XXXII of the Promessi Sposi comes to mind, he writes: "Common feeling was there but it was hidden for fear of common sense (buon senso".)

In the last chapter of one of his famous books Marcello Pera writes: "liberalism marries with a concrete doctrine of the good, in particular the Christian one which congeners it, and then it has something to offer to the contemporary moral crisis, or instead liberalism professes to be self-sufficient, "neural ” or “secular”, and then it becomes a multiplier of the crisis itself" .

https://www.culturacattolica.it/cristianesimo/magistero/magistero-approfondimenti/benedetto-xvi-a-marcello-pera-5-la-parabola-dell-etica-liberale

Does it make sense to say that liberal thought multiplies the moral crisis if it is not combined with the Christian doctrine of the good?

The first observation is that this statement ignores one of the most important elements of modern political thought and in particular the methodological and scientific revolution in the social sciences of Niccolò Machiavelli like Galileo in the Hard Sciences. .

??https://www.treccani.it/export/sites/default/magazine/webtv/videos/PDF/Machiavelli_Treccani_definitivo.pdf .

https://www.treccani.it/export/sites/default/magazine/webtv/videos/PDF/Machiavelli_english_ok.pdf

I am referring in particular to what Machiavelli writes regarding the specific and distinctive characteristics of the virtues of politics and (and its vices).

But apart from this, to state that "self-sufficient" "secular" liberalism (or liberalism of other religious confessions? ) becomes a multiplier of the moral crisis itself" appears to be a truly risky statement.

In recent years, the supporters of this fundamentalist vision have also exploited the words and writings of Benedict XVI. Pope Ratzinger has nothing to do with https://www.farodiroma.it/trisulti-scia-il-cardinale-martino-ed-entra-steve-bannon-il-cardinale-burke-chiamato-alla-presidenza-onoraria /- If anything, in Benedict XVI one could observe some form of conservative "Eurocentrism" with respect to the universalist visions of Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis I more open to global issues of the world.

No, liberalism as a doctrine of the (common) good is something else. Its oldest cultural roots can be found in the thought of philosophers who lived in a polytheistic society like the Greece. Why cage the liberal tradition in an obligatory combination with Christianity as Senator Pera does?

The discourse on monotheism and polytheism would take us far (for example on the wars of religion), but here there is no room to continue. Fighting the dangers of obscurantism that can be glimpsed on the horizon is what prompted me to get involved in politics after so many years.

But why did I choose +Europe? In this particular moment +Europe? is - in my opinion - the party that best interprets the secularism of politics (giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar) as well as the values of an open society. On the eve of the + Europa congress, I would like to remind you that Italy - and European politics - have a great need to relaunch the great tradition of secular thought.

There are some great political, scientific and religious revolutions that remain very topical. I am thinking of the 4 great political revolutions in the United Kingdom, France, the United States and India, but also Newton's discoveries or the debate on free will inside and outside Christianity after the Reformation.

As I write about the dangers of a Counter-Reformation climate, the names of Altiero Spinelli and Marco Pannella come to mind, but there are many other intellectuals who can inspire us to build a political culture worthy of the society in which we are immersed, a society that must safeguard social and civil rights in Italy, in Europe and in the world.

I conclude with an example. Marco Pannella and his Radical Party comrades fought against hunger in the world. Today famines are returning due to climate change, desertification and the invasion war of Ukraine unleashed by Vladimir Putin. Europe congress must measure itself with this kind great global challenges

In the streets s of Italy, + Europa's activists are present with constant initiatives to support the Ukrainian resistance and alongside Iranian women who risk their lives for the freedom of their people. .

It would be a disaster if this cultural and political heritage of a still small party (about 4,000 members) - but with a great potential expansion - starting from the territories, was dispersed due to asphyxiated and provincial internal diatribes. We cannot betray the expectations of the more than 800,000 voters who voted +Europe on 25 September 2022. This is why two "keywords" from the new leaders of +Europe will have to be responsibility and a unity in order to adequately prepare for the upcoming European elections in 2024.

*professor at the LUISS Master of Cybersecurity