Different from past elections ” “

With the slogan “This time it’s different” the European Parliament launched a public awareness campaign that is getting into full swing, while 100 days are still to go to the votes for the Assembly in Strasbourg. From May 22 to 25 – according to national customs and electoral regulations – EU citizens will be called to choose their representatives in the only community institution elected with universal suffrage. As stipulated in the Lisbon Treaty, over the past years the Assembly has increased its legislative and budgetary powers at EU level, and has a say in the appointment of the president of the Commission who will replace Portuguese president Barroso, nearing the end of term.Why should the next EP elections be “different”? The answers could be even too evident. We’re at the height of the crisis affecting the political and the economic sphere alike. Widespread credibility deficit involves EU institutions as well as national governments and parliaments. Second: precisely because of the concrete repercussions and of the social malaise triggered by the crisis, citizens have drawn further apart from the so-called “European project”, also because policymakers and the media at national level ascribed all responsibilities to Brussels and Strasbourg, even beyond the natural limits of that project. Third: every day globalization raises new challenges (e.g. in the area of finance, the markets, communication, security, demography, employment, rights, energy…) which have reduced the solidity of certain benchmarks of values and behaviours, along with territorial traditions acquired in time still lacking convincing answers, thereby paving the way to the only “alternative” emerged to date: to secure boundaries – whether municipal, regional, or national – and cut out the rest of the world. And the list goes on.This time European elections are different not because Strasbourg’s Assembly has greater power, and thus citizens’ vote counts more. On these grounds is based the election awareness campaign that circulated yet another slogan, which according to the various European languages goes as follows: “Act, React, Decide”. No, the end-of-May elections will be different because the “climate” and the feelings towards the “common home” have change. Nationalism is on the rise all over Europe, economic protectionism re-emerges from the depths of history, propounded by new advocators, and these elements are all bound together by populism with simple slogans, voicing opposition “against”: against the EU, against politicians from all party groups, against foreigners, against the Roma, even against our neighbours if they should be viewed as a threat to particular interests. There goes the formula.The outcome of the popular initiative referendum on immigration in Switzerland in a way reflects this climate. And while the Swiss Confederation is not a EU country, it sends a strong sign to the EU, namely, electoral campaign has begun, may populists and nationalists come forward, may European peoples and nations stand on opposite fronts, and in the end we shall see.Are there alternative options to this drift that risks throwing to the wind half a century of political and economic integration? Are there better proposals that would ensure the continuation of historical dynamics, to act in unison vis a vis international market competition, to create a truly “global” political player supported by operative democratic institutions representing half a million citizens?Nobody has a magic formula at hand. But for sure, the answer to these questions will need to involve “people-oriented”, “humane” politics, marked by bottom-up representative democracy with the European-scale cooperation of all the countries of the Old Continent. There are no shortcuts, those taken in the past have led in the opposite direction: they have led to contrasting interests, wars, and suffering. For centuries Europe has been the object of one-sided nationalisms and egoisms. Now it has no other option than to continue along the path of democracy, with a change of course, avoiding past mistakes in order to achieve the results citizens expect: peace, wellbeing, safety, respect and the enhancement of diversity, which constitute the salt and the yeast of modern Europe.The electoral campaign for May 22-25 is taking off. Parties and candidates will inform citizens about their principles and programs on the basis of which they request electoral support. In 100 days the buck will be passed to citizens. More than ever, the future will be in their own hands.