There is no more time. Mario Draghi, from the stage of the Rimini meeting, launches a new warning to Europe: either he changes route, or he will remain an irrelevant spectator in front of the global crises. “The 2025 will be remembered as the year in which the illusion of Europe evaporated to count,” said the former Prime Minister, who returned for the fourth time to the Communion and Liberation event.
Draghi pointed the finger at the decision -making of Brussels, the “rites” that paralyze the union, and the inability to react in front of scenarios such as the war in Ukraine, the crisis in Iran and Gaza, or duties imposed “by our ally of ancient date”, the United States, to which Europe “had to resign”.
“Let’s squeeze together”
The heart of his speech was an appeal to unity: “In the face of a world in which there is no more respect for the rules but the use of military force and economic power to protect national interests, the first thing that comes to mind is: let’s tighten all together”. Not the shortcut of “national sovereignty”, which would only mean weakening the old continent, but a Europe capable of strengthening integration and reforming its political architecture.
Common debt and defense
Draghi has also returned to its distinction between “bad debt and good debt”, invoking the construction of “forms of common debt” to finance large European projects, such as the increase in defense spending, made necessary – underlined – from the return of Donald Trump to the White House. “Fragmented and insufficient national efforts would never be able to implement similar projects,” he reiterated.
Pragmatism, not vision
His is not a facade Europeanism. “Mine is a pragmatic approach, with the feet on the ground,” said the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt with irony: “Are you looking for a vision? Go to the ophthalmologist ». He recalled how even in his degree thesis he defined the idea of a single currency “nonsense”. Yet the euro – he recognized – proved to be the right answer to the challenges of that time.
The applause of the meeting
Accompanied by the President of the Meeting Foundation, Bernhard Scholz, Draghi visited an exhibition at work, welcomed by applause already before going on stage. But it was his intervention that conquered the public. “Remove the barriers, agree on how to finance the gigantic necessary investments, draw a commercial policy adequate to the new era: here is the road,” he marked.
A clear warning: without an immediate “unity of action”, “circumstances” risk becoming “unsustainable”.
