Europe out of the greenhouse and into the sun
July 7th, 2008
Back in the seventies we were shocked by the Rome report. Population growth and over-consumption will put oil and food prices beyond anybodies’ reach. Then in the eighties we look to the sky, and we could almost see the ozone hole that was growing and bringing cancer for us all. And the nineties brought the heated world into the picture, where the sea will swallow all low countries in the world. Today, well into the first decennia of the XXI century, any opinion poll shows the environment as a high concern for every citizen, if not the highest. Thirty years of environmentalism have make a serious impact in the public opinion. The question is, though, why this impact has not yet translated in green politics? Why the green political parties across Europe seems to be still doomed to the small 10% of the voters?
WWI brought to an end the idea that civilized democracy would prevent uncivilized wars, and WWII showed that ethnic discrimination could unleash hell on hearth. These two most cherished dreams of the west died in the trenches and in the concentration camps. Only to be reborn with the European Union. For any young european today the slow dead in a trench, or the fast death in a gas chamber is a thing of the far way past. Those nightmares belong to the past due to the European Union, the behemoth that hidden behind an immense bureaucracy, has still brought peace and the reign of law to countries that were engaged in fratricidal wars along centuries. It is shocking, then, that such an immense success has not translated in everyday politics neither. It’s not only the french, the dutch, and now the irish that rejected a new European treaty, but as most politician knows but don’t tell, if referenda were carried today the Lisbon treaty would be rejected in most european countries.
Now european elections are in the horizon, and before we know, political parties will be trying to convince us to send their own representatives to Brussels. Is it still possible to rescue the relevance of the European Union as a relevant, and positive project? Or will this election face the skepticism that the UE faces today? What could the progressive and green politician, and citizen, do to not only remember the great successes of the EU, but also use the existing european power to tackle the concern of the citizen for a livable world?
In first place a fundamental change of tone in European politics is needed. Today, in despite of all doomsday scenarios available, europeans live in a stable welfare society. Wars and famines are things that happen somewhere else, not here. So it is not surprising that the environmentalist turn politician still do not win the popular vote. It does win the popular sympathy… but lets be sincere for once: who wants to give power to persons concerned with coming soon tragedies? Think in one of the core ideas of the pro-Lisbon camp: Europe without the treaty will not function. The threat backfired in the election boot. And Europe goes on, perhaps worse than it could. But it goes on. Calling doom scenarios to the public debate, pro-europeans trapped themselves in their own catastrophe: they loosed credibility. And even if the public today is concerned with global warming, the green politicians must not fall in the same trap. I am writing from a sunny terrace in Utrecht, at noon. A bride and her groom walk by to get married in the stadhuis, and the people from the street cheers. The sun shines and people talk by phone, smiles, drink a beer. Are they concern with global warming? sure they are. Will they vote in fear of an impending ecological catastrophe? No, they won’t. To the green politician of today my message is: let fear be the tool of others.
Because we know that, after all, fear can play a role in politics. Fear to a giant Europe, or fear to a tsunami… of migrants. As much as a change of tone is needed, a change of ideas is also needed. Just get the newspaper closer to you right now, and read what Sarkozy offers as his Europe: a closed garden. A protected eden of welfare, that is not ashamed of fearing the other. Let’s, for once again, be sincere: the welfare that europe enjoys today is also due to the migrant labor force. Europe is a continent of encounter and mix, a crossroad. The minorities that build the welfare of America depart from here half a century ago. And the minorities that worked for today europe’s welfare arrived here few years later. The european leaders then asked for workers, and, luckily enough, they receive people. The people that lives and works with you today. Why then must we cave in to the fear of the migrant that the Sarkozy’s, Verdonks and Wilders of this world try to peddle to us? Yesterday, as today in the center of Utrecht, a couple got married in the park at the side of my house. A Moroccan couple, that is, that brought their music and their family to the party. Yesterday, as today, the visitors of the park cheered and clapped. What have we to fear from the migrant? Today’s european politics must recognize our colorful society, and value the enrichment that migrants have brought. Have they brought problems? sure they have! as much as the EU have brought problems as well. Do we have to base our politics in rejection and fear? no, we don’t. It’s time for a turning of the tide. Today’s progressive politician have the duty of rescuing the value of our current, diverse society. What most diverse that Europe, after all? Closing our borders to newcomers is an agenda of impoverishment, not only cultural, but economical.
Economics, to end (and to begin). Europe started as the frequently deprecated europe of the coin and the steel, the economical area. A great deal of the success of the first decades of the EU was, beyond doubt, an economical success story. The huge unemployment before the wars was left behind. The welfare of europe is in great part due to the interconnected continent that we have become. But there are risks looming, beyond doubt. It is possible that the oil prices will peak by 2010, as some analyst predict, but it is a fact that the 100 dollars per barrel is a price unknown in history. The price of energy is still the elephant in the living room. And there is where green politics can and must play a role in the years to come. In the european scene, shyly and slowly indeed, the search for sustainable sources of energy is gaining ground. Europe is a populated continent, and affluent too. Many people with acquisitive power consumes energy. If there is a fundamental role for a transnational union, as the EU is, it is the finding of energy that without destroying our future, will support our present. Oil might or might not become cheaper, but it poisons the world of our children. It would be nice if everybody stops tomorrow using cars, but it would be far more important if the european creativity powers are employed to search, find and implement a way of living that do not destroy our own future. Energy is the key to this search, new sources of energy that as a matter of fact, exist. Wind, sun and water can produce the energy that the growing europe needs. If the european parliament has a task beyond the administration and control of bureaucracy, it’s the task of bringing green energy to the daily life of europeans.
So elections are in the horizon, and politician are making their minds about what to tell us. As always, they face all sorts of possible defeats and threats. If I might add a word in their making of programs, drop the doomsday scenarios, please. Recognize the brimming diverse society that we live in, and bring your energy to further bloom and progress, don’t hide behind the fear of the other. And if you enjoy as much as I do the leisure of a midday in a terrace in Utrecht, defend our welfare state with energies that will not cover the sun, making from this sunny europe a restricted entry greenhouse.
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