A referendum on the European Union

New European • Spring 2012
The new Duma

Ida Magli

Finally the planners of the European Union took off their mask. A
weak one, transparent, almost useless, a mask that they wore until
now – but still a mask. Market, market, market; finance, finance, finance;
and most of all: democracy, democracy, democracy. From now on, not
any more. Down with Democracy, up with Dictatorship. The New
York Times is celebrating its new hero: King George [Napolitano, the
Italian president] who with just one stroke succeeded in handing
over the government of Italy to a person who was never elected. He
transformed the Italian Parliament into a Communist Duma [the
Soviet parliament]; he had a deep nostalgia of the Duma, where there
was one single party that always approved the decisions made by
Stalin.
Now we see the real purpose of the “debt” question. The bankers
of Europe and of the whole world keep repeating that the Nations
are on the verge of collapse not because they gave up their monetary
sovereignty, but because they did not give up all their sovereignty:
financial government, taxes, pensions, foreign policy ... In brief: what
do Nations want? Do they still pretend to be Nations? Do they want
to keep some sort of sovereignty? This is just “Piigs” nonsense. If
national governments had not interfered, the Euro could have been
the strongest currency of the world. They must learn from the “model
schoolboy”, Germany! Germany is the smartest one! Germany just
had to change the name of its currency and is doing business with
all the world, especially with its nice neighbour, Russia. After all it
was the great guru, Herr Kohl who set the value of the euro, equal
to the mark. What about those who had the Lira or the Drachma,
whose value was less than a hundredth of the Mark? It was their own
governors who betrayed them, so what’s the matter? They can keep
on limping along; Germans are not supposed to worry about their
allies or subjects. In the European Union allies and subjects coincide:
they just have to obey and do their homework.
Now we are at the point of no return. Citizens do not have any
power – unless they chose to rebel, something that nobody wishes.
Italian parliamentarians are the ones for whom it is still possible
to save Italy as a sovereign and independent State, if they do not
betray their fellow citizens. If we keep on walking towards European
unification, we will be totally dominated by the bankers, we shall lose
all our freedom and we shall become poorer because of the rising
amount of our debt.
One thing is certain: if a State does not have its own currency, but
a common currency for which it is paying interests to the Central
European Bank, we can only see our debt rise, and we will have
limited opportunities on the market. Parliamentarians must think
whether they want to be remembered in History because they voted
YES, approving all this. If they have any doubt, they should ask the
voters to make the decision: promoting a referendum on the European
Union.
Translated by Marina Mascetti

IDA MAGLI is professor emerita of anthropology at the Univeristà
di Roma (La Sapienza). She has written numerous books. Her latest
book is La dittatura europea (The European Dictatorship), 2010. Her new
book, Dopo l’Occidente (After the West), will appear in April 2012.

Books in English:
Cultural Anthropology, 2001
Women and Self-sacrifice in the Christian Church: A Cultural History from
the First to the Nineteenth Century, 2003
Taboo and Transgression – Jesus of Nazareth, 2009