The American president, our defeat: welcome to the future
Whoever the president of the United States is, between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, in the head-to-head of these hours, those who have lost the electoral match are certainly us: Europe, the European Union, Italy, France, Germany, Spain and so on. Raise your hand if you remember when we went to vote for the renewal of the European Parliament. Difficult, right? It happened on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th June: 5 months have passed and we still don’t have a European government in office. Can a state with 450 million inhabitants, which must compete with the USA and China, Russia and India, remain without a government, therefore without a political direction, without representation, without authority, for such a long period?
Ursula von der Leyen’s salary: 1000 euros per day
Let’s see it from our portfolio. Can we afford to pay the salaries of 720 parliamentarians elected in the 27 member states and not expect them to work day and night so that the majority finally gives Europe a guide? And which guide? Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the body equivalent to the government, was elected by the European Parliament on 18 July 2024 with 401 votes in favour. And from the top of his salary of around 30 thousand euros a month, a thousand euros a day, he proposed the shortlist of commissioners only on 17 September, 60 thousand euros and 60 days later.
But that squad isn’t in place yet. The parliamentarians must examine the commissioner-ministers and vote for them one by one. They started this week, hurray, as Alfonso Bianchi tells us on EuropaToday on November 3rd. With the threat within the same majority of vetoes, a political mask that expresses what in our common life we would call blackmail. So much so that the Italian Raffaele Fitto, the pro-European candidate proposed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, risks being bullied by socialists, greens and liberals: only because he was proposed by Giorgia Meloni. Four months have passed since the appointment of the President of the European Commission, almost 120 days and 120 thousand euros in Ursula von der Leyen’s salary. And we are still at this point.
What will Europe be without the protection of the United States
I think about this as I read Cesare Treccarichi’s live broadcast tonight on the electoral count in the United States. Whatever the outcome, the new president-elect will take office in two months: at noon on January 20, as established by the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. And for Europe the signal is already clear. More quickly (with Donald Trump) or less quickly (with Kamala Harris), we Europeans are still destined to lose Washington’s protection. An example: Why should American taxpayers pay billions of dollars for our defense or foreign policy? What did we give them in return? The closure of the US agricultural market? The rules that penalize the conveniences and innovations offered by American digital platforms like Google or ChatGpt?
The lesson of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris
Donald Trump’s message on this has been clear for years: Europe must do its part. Kamala Harris doesn’t have European roots either: Indian mother, Jamaican father, she was born and studied in California. In short, she grew up in a technologically advanced world which, fortunately for her, looks to Asia beyond the Pacific Ocean and not to Europe beyond the old Atlantic. While next year we will celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War: in short, we have had eighty years to prepare for this moment. Fifteen years since the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. And we are not ready.
American diaries: testimony from the United States – by Cesare Treccarichi
What to do then? We are starting to see American companies not as competitors to beat, but as allies. Exactly as for years – unfortunately – we have been doing with Chinese companies, economically doped and protected by the communist dictatorship. Of course, for the European states not to go in random order and impose a new commercial policy, a strong government in Brussels, an effective European Parliament, a true European Constitution would be needed. But would France agree? And Germany? And Holland? And Italy? So let’s go back to the beginning of this article: in the new world that begins today, we are forced to change.
Follow uisjournal.com live from the United States – by Cesare Treccarichi
