Polish MEP Ryszard Legutko, a member of the "Conservatives and Reformists" group has launched a harsh attack on the institution to which he has been a member since 2009, freezing the chamber
"There is no European Demos and the European Parliament has done a lot of damage to Europe", this is the "bitter truth" that Ryszard Legutko, Polish MEP since 2009, exposed in a few minutes speech last week (here the video with Italian subtitles).
Legutko is not new to this type of intervention which has the effect of freezing the room, gathering murmurs of disapproval and giggles on one side and more or less timid applause on the other. Here’s a speech from 4 years ago.
Legutko’s thesis appears far from unfounded and in the 2022 speech he came to express it in a more precise, dry and complete way than 4 years ago: the European Parliament lacks an essential element that should be proper to a democratic institution, l’accountability, or the direct responsibility towards the voters.
There is no European people (and it will never exist according to Legutko) we are in the paradoxical situation whereby groups of parliamentarians elected in Germany, Spain or France put themselves in the position of going to debate and decide on how other peoples should behave and regulate themselves (he cites the case of Hungary) without having a direct responsibility towards those voters.
The Polish MEP accuses "the Left" of having de facto taken possession, politically and ideologically, of the European institutions, ending up "also infecting the European Commission", a body which, we recall, has effective powers superior to the European Parliament (and even less accountability , to be honest).
The phenomenon is certainly real and it is a fact that Western society as a whole, starting from the USA which is its fulcrum, is now split in two between population fringes that are difficult to define unequivocally (right and left? progressives and conservatives?) but who are certainly polarized and no longer capable of building a civil dialectic which is the basis of the democratic process.
In this sense, Legutko’s comment is very pertinent and well focused: "No matter how much you repeat the word diversity, diversity is becoming an extinct species in Europe and in particular in this Chamber".
Words capable of highlighting both the hypocritical aspect of modern progressive thought and the evidence of a process of building a cultural hegemony, to quote Gramsci, which is now in an advanced stage and sees the segments of the population that do not share this system of thought and orientation literally cornered.
After two years in which a certain type of hegemony has reached drifts that have seemed excessive and even dystopian to many (the management of the pandemic and the strongly censorial rules of communication connected to it are the most striking demonstration of this, but they have only been the most evident part of the phenomenon) it seems that we are experiencing a moment of easing of the grip but certainly not yet a paradigm shift.
Just think of how President Meloni, although strong in the broad popular consensus obtained precisely with the role of opposition to the last government, often finds herself having to moderate her positions to the point of distorting them in order to have "credibility", as she herself explicitly states. without catching any kind of stridor with respect to the democratic concept whereby accountability is due only to the voters.
It is difficult to imagine what the future will be, certainly the process of hegemonization has not obtained a complete victory and therefore the current balance can only be precarious. In the future we could go towards a further easing of the ideological and political tension between the factions (and it is the scenario to be hoped for and to work for) or, more likely, the tension will rise again and there will at some point be a moment of redde ratioem.
It is certainly pleasing that, despite the murmurs, giggles and jaws dropped to the floor, speeches like Ryszard Legutko’s are still possible and can in the long run be a starting point for a comparison.
Then it is a Pole who makes these speeches, very similar to those given by Farage in the same classroom, is an in which both the United Kingdom and Poland were admitted to Europe while having kept their currency (the Zloty in the case of Poland). And if the UK has made Brexit, Poland remains happily, for now, within the Union being historically a net beneficiary both in terms of direct European contributions and for the competitive advantage of being able to work on the European market without customs barriers but with the advantage of an exchange that can be depreciated if necessary.
Apparently monetary autonomy also brings with it the possibility of greater independence in terms of thinking at a political level. Other material on which, perhaps, one day it will be appropriate to return to reflect.
Original article published on Money.it Italy 2022-11-28 12:55:39. Original title: "Il Popolo Europeo non esiste", Ryszard Legutko gela l’aula del Parlamento Europeo
