Challenges of liberal democracy in Europe

17/01/2023

Les deux leaders du Troisième Pôle italien, Matteo Renzi et Carlo Calenda, se sont rencontrés samedi dernier à Milan lors d’une conférence très suivie intitulée « Les défis de la démocratie libérale en Europe », promue par le Parti Démocrate européen et Renew Europe, pour lancer un projet ambitieux qui dépasse les frontières du Troisième Pôle.
Cet événement a été introduit en rappelant les bons résultats lors des dernières élections politiques. Étaient présents Sandro Gozi, député européen et secrétaire général du PDE-EDP, ainsi que des participants de l’association LDE, Più Europa et d’autres mouvements libéraux, centristes, radicaux et réformistes.

MEP (and “Macronian” of the first hour) Sandro Gozi, warns that those in the center-right, such as EPP leader Manfred Weber and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who hope for a change of balance in the European Parliament thanks to an alliance with Renew’s liberals: they are very wrong: “Don’t even think about it. If the EPP continues to chase the reactionary and sovereigntist right, we will not be there,” he assures.

“There is a central space for those who don’t want to be with either Meloni or the populist Grillini or even the PD. This space is what we call Renew Europe. With this I believe that many Italians will stand with us in the next European elections in 2024,” said Italia Viva leader Matteo Renzi. “We are an area with profound differences but who have built Italy, the liberals, republicans, reformists, and the part of the social democrats who have understood that there is no social justice and that is built by decree,” said Carlo Calenda.

The premises bode well for the potential attractiveness of the birth of a liberal-reformist formation: the Milan auditorium is packed, people line up outside, even participants aligned with the center-left such as radical Benedetto Della Vedova (“There is a large political space that is still empty that wants to find representation: we must try to give it to them,” he says). The newly elected PD MP Carlo Cottarelli also peeps in.