Marco Schiesaro is the mayor of Cadoneghe in northern Italy, in the region of Veneto and province of Padua. In the following video you’ll see him bind up the EU flag to take it out of service at the town hall, in protest against the abandonment of Italy by Brussels during the coronavirus crisis.
It’s important to note that Mr. Schiesaro’s protest comes from the Left. He cites his political heroes in his little talk, and they range from the statist Left to the far Left (e.g. Altiero Spinelli, a Trotskyite communist and the author of the Ventotene Manifesto).
The mayor wants a united Europe, but not one that’s dominated by Germany. I say: Good luck with that! If Italy were the most powerful nation in Europe, the EU would be dominated by Italy.
Many thanks to FouseSquawk for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
| 01:17 | As you see, I have put two knots, two strings, | |
| 01:22 | on the flag… on the European Union flag, | |
| 01:26 | on the flag of a Europe that these days | |
| 01:30 | is a Europe that is not giving us a hand. It is not | |
| 01:34 | the Europe that we imagined. | |
| 01:37 | It is not a Europe close to the people. It is not a Europe of the people. | |
| 01:42 | But it seems to be more and more the “garden” of Germany. | |
| 01:46 | I think that none of our grandfathers, none of our great-grandfathers | |
| 01:51 | thought to make a war to liberate Europe, | |
| 01:55 | and for the third time in 100 years, to consign it to Germany. | |
| 02:00 | It is not the Europe that we imagined. Europe | |
| 02:04 | constructed and reborn, that is re-established | |
| 02:10 | on the misery and the slaughter of the Second World War. | |
| 02:14 | Great statesmen — Adenauer, Schuman, de Gasperi, | |
| 02:19 | Spinelli — did enormous work to construct a great European project, | |
| 02:24 | a great area of peace, of solidarity, of protection, | |
| 02:29 | which could help the European people. The Europe of today | |
| 02:33 | is a Berlin-centric Europe, bank-centric, | |
| 02:37 | founded on finance and on the interests of the Germans. | |
| 02:41 | Look, we are Italians. There are the Spanish people | |
| 02:45 | the French people, who along with us, ask for greater solidarity. | |
| 02:51 | What we are living through is a great tragedy | |
| 02:55 | for our population, for our time. We need a united Europe. | |
| 03:02 | And the protest of the mayor of Cadoneghe, | |
| 03:06 | my protest, the protest of our administration, | |
| 03:09 | reflects the sentiments of millions of Italians, | |
| 03:12 | and the huge majority of our population of Cadoneghe. | |
| 03:17 | And it is a protest against the current model of Europe, | |
| 03:22 | which is blind and deaf to the needs of our fellow citizens. | |
| 03:27 | It is a Europe which, essentially, is not helping our people. | |
| 03:32 | Therefore, the protest, which we wanted to carry out | |
| 03:36 | and want to make note of, is to suspend the European flag | |
| 03:40 | because does not represent us. The Europe of today | |
| 03:44 | does not represent us. And this suspension will remain, | |
| 03:48 | in hope that it will not become an elimination of the | |
| 03:52 | European flag out of protest, and I hope that others | |
| 03:56 | carry this protest forward, | |
| 04:00 | which is not anti-European, | |
| 04:04 | that is to “wrap up” the European flag, it doesn’t mean being anti-European. | |
| 04:09 | It means not conforming to the general thinking | |
| 04:13 | of a Europe founded on the banks, founded on Germany. | |
| 04:17 | I am not anti-European. The huge majority of Italians are not anti-European. | |
| 04:22 | The huge majority of Italians do not want this Europe. | |
| 04:26 | They want a Europe that has sensitivity | |
| 04:30 | and a closeness to its… in respect to the needs | |
| 04:34 | and should be close to the needs of the people. Therefore, | |
| 04:38 | today’s protest is not against Europe | |
| 04:42 | but to want a different Europe, | |
| 04:46 | a Europe founded on the people and not on the banks. |
Europe dominated by Italy? This has a certain charme to it. Unfortunatly I do not have a cousin who would find me a sinecure job in any state agency – I will not care which because I only would show up at nine, hang my coat over the chair and leave for a stroll in town, chat up some ladies. Another cousin- imaginary- would take care of my IRS bulletin and organise a refund for overpaid taxes. And the local police- a cousin of a cousin- would blink an eye when he passes my garden where two Africans take care of the orchard.
By the way, I like the Italians for their easy going style and friendlyness.
Same in Spain. I did some research there in the early eighties, saw a high ranked departement officer on his turf, asked for info only accessible to him.
” We don’t have that, sorry”. But the folder there, behind you? That’s all I need to look at.” Sorry I can not help you, was his comment. If they do everything this way, no wonder their problems can only increase.
I dare not figure if Europe were ruled by other countries I shall not name to avoid the wrath of commenters here. And this scarecrow ” German hegemony” thing is just Ersatz that saves dealing with their own deficiencies.