As is well known, sometimes a Trojan horse works more than a great siege. Leaving Brexit aside, episode Sui generis, the European Union has resisted reasonably well the onslaught of nationalist formations on the continent which, with varying intensity, have sought to withdraw from the project in recent years. There were parties that flirted with the departure of their countries from the Euro Zone or with the reduction of common competences (weighing even more radical options privately). But having domesticated this kind of threat outside the city for the moment does not mean that problems related to it cannot appear from within the European perimeter itself. Michel Barnier, a convinced supporter of the community project and a solvent Brexit negotiator on behalf of the Twenty-seven, walks with one of them in size XL under his arm. A real bomb.
More information
Barnier is one of several contenders for the role of Republican candidate – traditional conservatives – in the French presidential election next spring. Among his proposals, the promise to “regain control of immigration policy” stands out. To that end, it proposes a moratorium to stop what it defines as “automatic authorizations” –for example, by hardening criteria for family reunification-, to approve a constitutional law that protects these measures by preventing the French justice from taking them down in the name of France’s international commitments. and organize a referendum to support it all. The maneuver would entail proclaiming the superiority of national law over community law in immigration matters. A frontal attack on an essential pillar of the community building.
Barnier’s logic is clear. Rightly or not, there is broad social concern in this matter; it must be prevented from capitalizing on the extreme right. For this, the supposedly moderate conservative politician assumes rhetoric (“regain control”, echo of the famous “take back control”) And contents (take what is interesting from the EU, discard what is not) with a very Brexit flavor. But the price of deactivating the extreme right in this way is quite similar to the triumph of its ideas and a brutal wound to the European project.
Under the leadership of Angela Merkel, the German Christian Democrats have opted for a very different strategy in their handling of the ultra-right challenge: sanitary cordon in terms of management; sidereal distance in terms of values. Not everything is ground gold (see the striking tolerance towards Víktor Orbán that the CDU has sponsored for years) but as a whole it has been a position of notable political stature. In absolute terms; and even more in relative terms, if it is compared with maneuvers a la Barnier, with the uncomplexed embrace of Forza Italia to the League and Brothers of Italy or to the attitude of the PP in Spain.
The CDU faces an election this Sunday in which the polls predict a bad result. If confirmed, it will be essential for all of Europe that this does not generate a shift in training that moves it away from moderation. The PP, for its part, celebrates its national convention in the coming days amid disturbing symptoms of acceptance of extreme positions. The infiltration of certain ideas into the central core of European politics is a huge risk. Barnier’s proposal would have dire consequences in terms of political and legal conflict. Others may be tempted to assert the superiority of national over community law in the same, or in other areas. I’m afraid of miscarriages and carrying gifts (“I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts”), Laocoon wisely alerted the Trojans in Virgil’s Aeneid.
–
