A mixed feeling, something in between physical fear and aristocratic despice is inevitable, when one lives in fragile Venice and a menacing brutal monster enters the Canal Grande, offering the narrow strees and the delicate mosaics that pave its churches and palaces to the newly enriched masses of global tourism.
Read more
Tous les perdants du 4 Mars
Lettre d’Italie, n. 2
Des quatre Chefs du Gouvernement qui ont dominé la scène italienne au cours du dernier quart de siècle, tous sont sortis perdants des élections du 4 Mars.
Un des perdant est certainement Silvio Berlusconi, qui a gardé le plus longtemps le devant de la scène italienne, et qui est sorti personnellement très affaibli, et même marginalisé. Son parti, Forza Italia, n’a en effet eu que 14,2%. Mais la sienne est une étrange défaite, qui – comme l’on a pu le voir […]
L’Italie seule
Lettre d’Italie, n. 1
L’Italie, une masse anarchique où la civilisation, l’humanité, tantôt sombrent tantôt se sauvent en se frayant des voies secrètes
Daniel Halévy, Décadence de la liberté
Six semaines après une session électorale qui a ébranlé les fondements mêmes du système politique italien tel qu’il a été, malgré des hauts et des bas, depuis l’après-guerre, rien – ni le résultat en soi même, ni le feu croisé entre les partis qui a fait suite – ne permet pas encore de dire quel […]
The Case for a New Kanzlerin
The Deputy Chair-Person of the DIE LINKE party, used to be - in the GDR - a controversial communist; today she is the most famous politician of the left. In her new book "Wealth without Greed", she quotes ordoliberal thinkers as well as Karl Marx.
One of the most outspoken Frau Merkel’s critics and political opponents, she has made very clear the reasons of her stand to the very respected and influential weekly DIE ZEIT.
Since then, more than half million people have signed an appeal to make her Germany’s next Chancellor
DIE ZEIT: Frau Wagenknecht, is Brexit a danger for Europe? Sahra Wagenknecht: It could also be a wake-up call. Everyone should now be aware that we must change something if we do not want Europe to fall apart. DIE ZEIT: What is wrong in Europe? Sahra Wagenknecht: The great promises of united Europe were peace, […]
Trump, Myanmar, China
and the inheritance of Obama’s “dumb deals”
Just a few days after entering the White House, and a very recent convert to geo-political affairs, President Trump was obviously unaware of the plan that there was behind the US-Australian refugee deal. And couldn’t appreciate the political meaning and value to US diplomacy of taking 1,250 Muslims on US soil.
“I will study this dumb deal”, a just-elected Trump said in early 2017, at the end of a very quarrelsome conversation with Australian PM Malcom Turnbull, who had mentioned an Obama-era agreement by which Washington has accepted to take and resettle in the US 1,250 Muslim refugees, mainly of Rohingya ethnicity, that where at that time stranded in […]
Those who believe Trump is stupid
haven’t seen what he has accomplished
One of the biggest mistakes of the US establishment will turn out to be having underestimated Trump.
But the way he was elected President, against the system, will complicate the mission of his Administration.
Laure MANDEVILLE – The state of quasi-civil war, which currently prevails in the US, is it the result of the fact that the country is badly split alonf partisan lines, or is it due to the fear that the Trump phenomenon might mark the beginning of a change of regime? Walter Russell MEAD. – As […]
L’Italie dit “Non” à son avenir
En Italie, une convergences de profiteurs de la corruption, de démagogues populistes, du vote de protestation, de déçus de l'Europe, et d'anciens communistes qui n'ont plus d'autre rêve que d'être acceptés chez les riches, a étranglé la tentative réformatrice de Matteo Renzi.
Même si certains détails prouvent que la société Italienne garde sa fibre morale, le déclin de l'affluence aux urnes , la frustration générale et l'absence de perspectives politiques laissent craindre l'instabilité, l'ingouvernabilité et, à la limite, la violence.
L’on prétend que, en appelant Matteo Renzi “Matador” pour le féliciter après que son parti avait obtenu 41% aux élections européennes, Mme Merkel aurait fourni la preuve qu’elle n’arrive pas à discerner l’Italie de l’Espagne – Que voulez-vous ? Ces pays du Sud sont tous si différents de la DDR! Mais il s’agit probablement d’une insinuation […]
UK Brexit: Democracy Hijacked; the country adrift.
A country like Britain that has no written constitution must rely to a large extent on the wisdom and integrity of its leaders. Unfortunately these qualities have been in short supply recently
The UK version of parliamentary democracy has its fault lines, but one of its strengths is that it offers, indeed insists upon, a measured and informed debate on issues of national importance. A basic requirement of MPs is that they act, not as delegates from their constituencies, but as representatives charged with weighing the […]
Left and Right are having
a meltdown over Russia
US political and intellectual circles seem unaware of the pitiful and discouraging image they have been offering to the rest of the world during, and mostly after, the 2016 Election campaign.
This article, which we reproduce from the New York Post is by far the most reasonable we have read in a long time.
In this time of weird reversals, Democrats and liberals who scoffed at Mitt Romney’s 2012 assertion that Russia was our primary adversary have become so convinced of Vladimir Putin’s perfidy, they sound like the Cold Warriors of old. Meanwhile, our incoming president continues to extend the benefit of the doubt to Russia when it […]
THE LURE OF “POPULISM”
Why the “NO” in Italy’s referendum was’t the same as “Leave” or “Trump for President”
Political, economic and demographic factors played out differently in reform vote
“Nobody ever loses in Italian politics; I have lost,” said Matteo Renzi, the outgoing prime minister, in reference to the habit of Italian politicians to stay in power regardless of their failures. His concession came an hour after exit polls that all but confirmed his defeat in the constitutional reform referendum. But who voted against […]
La Costituzione di chi vota “SI”. La Costituzione di chi vota “NO”
Domenica si voterà per il referendum costituzionale ed io che voto “SI” non posso mancare di esprimere le ragioni di questa mia scelta. Così come ritengo mio dovere esprimere il mio giudizio e l’analisi delle motivazioni di chi vota “NO”.
L’obiettivo principale della riforma è quello di rendere più rapido il passaggio delle leggi senza l’estenuante gioco di rinvii tra Camera e Senato. Un gioco di rinvii in cui si annidano le peggiori caratteristiche del processo legislativo, con l’introduzione di piccoli cambiamenti destinati a favorire interessi particolari, oppure a rendere poco chiare le leggi in modo […]