A mere chance?

When there’s a lack of harmony between husband and wife, its effects are felt both by the family itself and the society based on the family (still, in spite of everything). Society in all its aspects: relational, educational, professional, cultural, economic and political. The European Parliament is no exception to this rule. Following last month’s European elections, its new composition presents us – in the week of the legislature’s inaugural session – with the following breakdown: 736 MEPs, of whom 478 men and 258 women. So the female presence amounts to 35% of the total. That is a significant percentage (the highest since 1979, lower only than the percentages of women in the Parliaments of Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia and Holland), which deserves as such our respect and consideration with a view to its turning to account: its “optimization”, as economists would put it today.It’s not a problem of “pink quotas”: not even what remains of a by-now anachronistic feminism believes any longer in blanket female primacy. In politics, as in other areas of life, there are, irrespective of gender, persons of quality and persons who would do better to change their professions. Nor does it serve any purpose to drag in the clichés (however true they often are) of women as being more sensitive, open, amenable, conciliatory, and more in step with the times. Equally, the point is not whether women occupy positions of power, but rather whether the women who occupy positions of power have the necessary willpower, the ability to decide and to act for themselves. “Power” in the broad sense, given that by their very nature the debating chambers of Strasbourg and the corridors of Brussels are not places of absolute power: it’s not necessary to have behind you financial empires, media, pressure groups or party mechanisms to make a valid contribution. It’s enough to want to make a valid contribution and strive to achieve it.In a context where the majorities cut more across party lines than in national Parliaments, and where the equality of the sexes is substantially achieved (and not only due to the traditional presence of large representations of Scandinavian women), the key that opens the doors of effective and efficacious contribution to the improvement of the res europaea also consists in the harmonious understanding between male and female MEPs. Not forgetting that the male component in the European Parliament also includes the leaders of the European political parties and parliamentary groups, and without prejudicing the legitimate interests and choices of party or political alignment (which form and shall always form an integral part of political debate), for the government of which it is of little or no account whether you’re a man or a woman.History and human memory have difficulty in remembering the names of the various Presidents of the European Parliament from 1979 to the present day, still less the names of individual MEPs. With two prominent exceptions: Nicole Fontaine and especially Simone Veil. Two women. Is that a mere chance?