The attack on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, with the specter of political violence once again looming over the Old Continent. The protest that breaks out in Italian and European university classrooms in support of the Palestinian cause. The hotbeds of war, from Ukraine to the Middle East, which keep the world in suspense. There are those who talk about a return to the 70s to describe the tensions that pervade the contemporary political scenario. However, the philosopher Massimo Cacciari does not think so, who speaking to Adnkronos provides his political reading of recent events: “I don’t see any parallels to the political violence of the 1970swhich was essentially determined by a political internecine conflict within several states, between far-left forces and the establishment. Today – observes Cacciari – I don’t see any extra-parliamentary movements“.
The shots against the Slovak prime minister are a tragic consequence of the process of “weakening” Europe, says the essayist. “Europe as such is an entity that has less and less political meaning” and within the various European states “the failure to anchor itself to a strong idea of Europe creates instability and political upheaval”. What makes the situation worse, according to Cacciari, is the absence “of strong European leadership and this produces a general situation of great uncertainty and instability.”
Even on the student protests front, comparisons with the ’70s are risky, reflects the philosopher and former mayor of Venice: “The university protests of the ’70s were determined by an anti-system orientation, while the current ones derive from a reaction, for certain very understandable verses, regarding the ways in which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is unfolding”.
“The forms of this protest – underlines Cacciari – are highly questionable, but the motive is as big as a house: no one moves in the face of a massacre of women and children that has been going on for months”. In the university demonstrations we are witnessing “the anti-system component, even ideological, which was typical of the student struggles of the 70s, is totally missing”. Furthermore, “compared to the past, the current political forces have nothing to say against each other on essential issues: theirs is a purely verbal and electoral conflict, a fake conflict”, he concludes.
#Fico #attack #protests #universities #Cacciaris #analysis