The newfound alliance
This Town-Hall Meeting in Rome is a strong political sign of the importance of Italian-German relations and I’m in hope that this series of Meetings could represent a-bridge-building-opportunity for all concerned. Not only because this year marks the two hundredth anniversary of Goethe Italienische Reise. Far more important is it to re-establish the conditions for a fruitful relationship between Germany and Italy.
The political dialogue between Germany and Italy has clearly been, and still is, going through a difficult phase. The various crisis which have hit Europe – economic, political and humanitarian – have raised old stereotypes and opened the way to new forms of nationalism and populism which have called into question the entire european project: from the monetary union to the free movement of people (Schengen Treaty).
It is impossible not to observe that between Italy and Germany there are many and ever more cultural exchanges, not to mention, commercial trade, which has always flourished, as the last German-italian economic Forum confirmed, here in Rome two years ago in the presence of Ministers Frank Walter Steinmeier and Federica Mogherini and shows that the italian and german economic models complement one another.
Whilst there is this positive phenomena of reciprocal cooperation between Germany and Italy, many commentators and even some politicians, contrastingly, have difficulty in following one another’s reasoning. I’m refering in particular to the management of the economic crisis and, more recently, the humanitarian crisis which we need yet to acknowledge the agreement between the internal Italian and German Ministers.
The difficulties and missunderstandings within italian-german relations are not-only the outcome of the changed internal political and cultural context. Certainly, the new generation have a less romantic idea of the single national culture – the italian Renaissance plays a less relavant role than it did in german society thirty or forty years ago, and the same is true for the Italians with German literature, from Goethe to Thomas Mann and Gunter Grass. The interests of the new generation are obviously influenced by anglosaxon-culture and politics. Any further devolopment of the italian-german dialogue can-not ignore this new political and cultural horizon of global comunication.
We must accept that the context in which bilateral relations are understood and developed, has changed.
The European Union has become more complex. It’s impossible to analyse bilateral relations between states on a purely bilateral basis, but, rather, in the european context. It is above all within the European Institutions (Parliament and, specifically, the European Council) that the member countries must try to unite both national and european interests through continuous mediation.
After all, the European Union is not yet an autonomous entity but more a collection of national states. The reference to national identity and national dimension appears frequently in the european-Treaties as is shown, for example, by famous article 4 of the Treaty of the European-Union. On matters of foundamental importance – for example immigration or national security – national governments strongly resist giving up their sovereignty resulting-in a lack of cohesion on wider-eurozone-issues.
Returning to italian-german relations it can be seen that in Italy most commentators are very critical about the role assumed by Germany during the economic crisis and accused it of imposing its own policies or persuing vested interests. There is much analysis and commentary in Italy which use terms like ‘Fourth Reich’, ‘Anschluss’ or ‘German Europe’, on which, frankly, it’s not worth dwelling. Criticising the decisions of the german government using expressions which bring to mind the usual stereotypes have a negative impact on solving current european problems. Certainly these european conflicts can not be resolved with opposition to Germany or with fanciful and improbable euromediterranean alliances, but in close cooperation with the German Federal Republic and within the European Institution. Further, this is even more true for Italy which for about twenty years now, has been in the grip of an unending political crisis and institutional-fragility which has resulted in, on the one hand, the ridimensioning of Italy’s political weight in the European context, on the other hand, within Italy the growth of neo nationalist parties and anti-european pseudo-political culture with obvious anti-german undertones.
In my opinion however, what should have been highlighted is the balancing role played by the German Federal Republic in a Europe ever more divided into North and South, as during the debt crisis, or East and West, as during the refugee crisis, or, finally, vertically as with the asymmetry between European and national institutions. All these fractures contribute to the deterioration of the European Union sharpening conflicts and eroding the internal political legitimacy of that Union. In this context Germany plays a fundamental-and-essential-balancing-role of which the-european-ruling-and-political-class is not always aware.
It is likewise useful to reflect on the historical reasons which have led Germany to acquire an unusual centrality in Europe. Until the Fall of the Berlin Wall the European balance was based on the division of Germany, but from 1990 onwards a period began in which, (A) with the acceleration of the European integration process, (B) the introduction of the single currency and, especially, (C) with the Eastward expansion of the Union, the reunited Federal Republic has inevitably acquired a new centrality. After the Fall of the Soviet Empire Germany was the only cuntry to unite in a context in which many countries have divided. And with the expansion to the East, the Union’s center of gravity has shifted in favor of the Federal Republic, which has traditionally had a remarkable cultural and economic influence on Eastern-european-countries.
To this we must add the traditional political and institutional stability of the German Federal Republic that allows German governments to act effectively in the long term and to gain greater authority within the international context. During the economic crises, German political stability was notably different from the political instability of France or Italy, for example.
Recently I happened to read again the final document of the famous Margaret Thatcher seminar organized in March 1990 in view of the upcoming German reunification. The English Prime Minister wanted to understand the possible outcomes in a Europe with a reunited Germany. The final document states that «We could not expect a United Germany to think and act in exactly the same way as the Federal Republic which we had known for the last forty-five years […] The Germans would not necessarily think more dangerously, but they would think differently» the conclusion was however «we should be nice to the Germans».
As has been recalled recently by former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, one of the major obstacles in Europe today is the imbalance between France and Germany. And this paradoxically is where Italy comes-in. Traditionally, in Franco-German relations – says Fischer - the balancing role of Italy was far from irrelevant to the building of the European project. But Italy since the mid-nineties-onwards has gradually lost this role. Since 2011, however, Italy is slowly recovering its european role despite many difficulties.
Now, in spite of the lack of understanding between Germany and Italy, the two countries remain friends and, above all, great allies and as-such they want to stay in a Europe which, however, needs to be better than the current one. This is where the mutual difficulty of finding a way of speaking a same language and a unity of purpose comes in. What is very valuable in this sense is the constant and sometimes almost hidden role which in recent months Staatsminister Michael Roth and il Sottosegretario Sandro Gozi have played in seeking unity of purpose.
But we can not hide the fact that the references to common values, the fight against unemployment and neo-nationalism and the need for rigor and growth to co-exist are, certainly, important, but they are not sufficient because they are at too high a level of abstraction. Europe will improve with actions, initiatives and concrete proposals. Europe is, in fact, the laboratory in which new world policy works towards responding to a new era of global interdependence. For this reason, in my opinion, this meeting - as well as the entire project - is a great opportunity to develop concrete joint strategies for the solution of the many European crises.
We must not forget, in fact, that the European Union’s identity lacks the emotional essence of the nation, its historical depth is founded on reason. There aren’t collective symbols, historic days and decisive battles. Even the myth of the founding fathers can not be compared to that which supports, for example, countries like the United States of America which is too often mistakenly named as a model. The classic manifestations of sovereignty - a monopoly-of-force, territory, population - are weak in the European Union. That is why Europe can be an extraordinary success story only if it is capable of solving the problems it must confront, improving the economic and cultural conditions of its citizens.
I confess to being an incurable optimist, I strongly believe that the European Union has the strength and ability to renew itself because the history of the European Union is a history of crises. I believe that Italy and Germany will work, together, to improve economic and cultural conditions but also towards greater transparency in the democratic processes within European Institutions.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century the historian Gian Enrico Rusconi described Italian-German relations with the expression Schleichende Entfremdung. Recently the philosopher Angelo Bolaffi spoke of das Ende einer Allianz. Both terms perfectly expressed two different phases of Italian-German relations. But bilateral relations, even in a European context, are never static, but dynamic. Now that the most acute phase of the economic and financial crisis (during which the contrast between Italy and Germany reached its peak) is behind us, it is time to re-established the broken threads of Italian-German relations in the expectation of a solid newfound alliance. The reconstruction of this newfound alliance is up to the new generation of politicians, scientists and young Europeans.
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