A European flag in the window
It was our first initiative as EuropaNow!, put in place in December 2018, on the eve of the League's sovereignist rally, to call citizens to oppose those inciting a new "march on Rome," convinced of the urgency of responding to the buzzwords of toxic and anachronistic nationalism with a healthy feeling of European patriotism.
But how to do this with an equally simple and immediate message? And without resorting to the classic arguments of the European establishment, often based on a utilitarian key to our togetherness ("we are pro-European as long as it suits us")?
We discussed with friends, supporters, and sympathizers what was the best action to take to "welcome" populist right-wingers. When we proposed to display a European flag in the window, as an embodiment of a collective feeling of belonging and at the same time as a symbol of memory and common values, the idea was liked and everyone was ready to do it.
But there was a problem: European flags were not so easy to find. So we decided to get them, focusing on the 12-star banner distribution campaign to promote our anti-sovereignist appeal.
Together with the European Federalist Youth, we then organized garrisons in the squares of several Italian cities, offering citizens a eu flag to display in their windows and on their balconies. They appeared by the dozens on the buildings in Rome and other of the cities. And many are still there. A sign that we are not alone in thinking that the European project still represents the most extraordinary invention of modern politics, ending years of bloody conflict and bringing as a dowry a social model unparalleled in the world.
Since then, the European flag distribution campaign has also been an integral part of all our initiatives and mobilizations, because that banner belongs to the people and because Europe means "uniting people, not just integrating states."
The nationalists want to destroy Europe, we want to change it!
Pictured: distribution of eu flags at the 2019 May Day celebration, Rome
Europe must be defended, but also profoundly reformed along the path of federalism envisioned by Altiero Spinelli and Jean Monnet.
If Europe appears immobile, it is precisely because that project is still incomplete; nation-states have never really surrendered their powers.
And it is on this paradox that much of the political fortunes of nationalists are based. However, after the two financial-economic crises and the Coronavirus pandemic, it is more evident than ever that a single state, no matter how wealthy and industrialized, can no longer meet the challenges of a globalized world on its own, while the sovereignists create the reassuring illusion that by abandoning the European project and closing the borders, they can keep the problems out as well.
Instead, to overcome those challenges we need a new Europe that is more united, democratic, fraternal, supportive and federal. And yet it is not enough to be together because it suits us. What holds us together is above all common history and shared values, the memory of the tragedies of the 20th century, the Shoah, Nazi-fascism and totalitarianism. And the dream of a future European republic in which all citizens have the same rights. If we want to realize that dream, we'd better hold on to this flag.
Our European flag distribution campaigns against right-wing sovereignist demonstrations in 2018 and 2019, told in pictures.
The campaign is participating in the 21st Miguel's Run on January 19 in Rome. Some EuropaNow! members participated in the race.
Here is the Corriere della Sera article.
The European flag distribution campaign was hosted by the tour of LOOKING FOR EUROPE, the show/monologue against populism brought to twenty European cities by French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, on the eve of the European elections.
In March 2019, Romano Prodi also launched the eu flags campaign at the window.
European flags among the Sassi of Matera, special guests of the 4th edition of Guest Houses, organized by the Murgia Materana Park.
Among the thousands of Sardines who took to the streets in Rome in December 2019 were ours!
