In these days of great difficulty, we ask ourselves a question that seems (but is not) to escape the daily news.
Europe is wondering about the cap on the price of gas, while the states are going their separate ways: there are those who want to protect themselves (who is calling who a ‘sovereignist’?) and those who do not want to give up their earnings (Holland and Norway docet). What happened to the applauded European solidarity at the time of the pandemic?
The international situation is there to be seen. Those who claim that this crisis is worse than the Covid one and even the financial one of 2007-2008 are right.
The Italian Minister for Ecological Transition, Cingolani, recently explained all the difficulties involved in governing the energy process. Rules, regulations, and excessive bureaucracy dominate.
Meanwhile, around Italy (and also in the regions that are already the engine of national development) despair and anger grow. It is the overwhelming discomfort of those who work and realise that, day after day, they are less and less able to meet the cost of living.
Just as in the Vatican we have two popes (one emeritus and the other reigning), in Italy we have two governments: one still in office for current affairs and the other in formation. What has been done in the last two months? What answers have been given to the growing social discontent?
We are not among those who think that governing such complicated historical processes is a simple operation. We also think, however, that politics feeds on the ‘distance’ between itself and reality. We hope that the new government, right from the start, will be able to give effective answers and we ask ourselves: when will we finally succeed in getting out of the ‘bureaucratic state’ (formal democracy) and into the ‘democratic state’ (substantive democracy)?
