This weekend in Madrid there will be a major event of the EU far right called "Europa Viva 24". Abascal 🇪🇸 is the host. Guests include Meloni 🇮🇹, Le Pen 🇫🇷, Ventura 🇵🇹, Orbán 🇭🇺, Milei 🇦🇷, Morawiecki🇵🇱, and Chikli 🇮🇱.
Here's why this event is important. 🧵 The event is in preparation for the EU elections of June 2024. It is organised under the auspices of ECR group (European Conservatives and Reformists) - which many of the guests are members of - led by Italy's PM Giorgia Meloni. 1/

Milei's WEF speech is a summary of the anthropological theory of libertarianism. At the beginning there is a capitalist Eden, where myriads of Robinson Crusoes live freely and enjoy immediate appropriation and seamless exchange. Then, out of the blue arrives the evil State.. Now everyone who has read anything about the history of capitalism knows that if anyting it is precisely the other way around. Capitalism was enabled by the rise of the modern nation-state, its creation of a common legal framework of large markets, of bureaucracies etc.

It's worrying to see how geopolitical confrontation has led to a confluence of the dregs of the old neoliberal centre with the conservative and far right around a project of "defence of the West vs the rest" (also framed as "democracies vs non-democracies" or "garden vs jungle"). It's evident that it is a mindless strategy. 1) Smart diplomats usually try to divide their competitors/adversaries rather than unite them in a common block, 2) "Civilization vs barbarians" reeks of a cultural (if not altogether racial) suprematism that is totally anachronistic.

Berlusconi has died at 86. Tree times Italian PM, his tenure was an unmitigated disaster for ordinary Italians. But he has been one of the most influential politicians in the West over the course of the neoliberal era. Trump, Meloni and Bolsonaro are Berlusconi's pupils. Berlusconi was a 1st in many respects for post-WWII Western politics:
1. The 1st business magnate to become a successful politician
2. The 1st to break with any norm of institutional respect/politeness
3. The 1st to enlist far right in his cabinets

Personalmente non ho mai avuto problemi a dialogare con persone di opinioni diverse. Sono cresciuto in una famiglia democristiana in una provincia di destra. Ma il livello di intolleranza mostrato su questa piattaforma da sedicenti “centristi” non l’ho mai visto da nessuna parte. L’estremismo di chi si pensa difensore dei sacri principi del libero mercato non dà nessuno spazio alla differenza d’opinione e al pluralismo. Quantomeno una persona di destra sa che non tutti la pensano allo stesso modo. Per l’ultrà liberista questo invece è inconcepibile.

Un buon giorno per ricordare che è grazie ai sindacati che abbiamo la giornata di 8 ore, il fine settimana, le ferie pagate, la pensione e il diritto a non essere licenziati senza motivo. E che non si può più tollerare che a molti lavoratori siano negati questi diritti basilari. Fosse stato per i liberisti, saremmo ancora alla schiavitù in senso letterale (negli Usa alcuni liberali la difendevano come diritto alla "proprietà") o figurato con fabbriche con turni di 12 ore e più, bambini nella catena di montaggio e nessuna regola di sicurezza.

Italians have many qualities, but among them it does not feature assuming responsibility for WWII and the atrocities commited by fascists abroad. Some Italians don't even know that Italy invaded France, Greece, Jugoslavia and the USSR. Today in Italy we celebrate the Italian victims of Jugoslavian partisans who were driven away from their home or killed. Curiously this is not prefaced by the fact that Italy invaded Jugoslavia in a joint attack with Germany in hundreds of thousands died.

Una ragione per diffidare dei fanatici di ogni risma è che l'approccio fideistico può cambiare contenuto seppur mantenendo la forma. Come successo a tanti ex comunisti occidentali divenuti apologhi del liberismo. La teleologia è la medesima anche se il télos è cambiato. In Italia come noto abbiamo una quantità considerevole di intellettualli che sono transitati a destra al momento opportuno, spesso reclutati tra le frange più estremiste. Basta vedere l'intellighenzia berlusconiana.

In 2000s/early 2010s social media was idealised as a cyber-adaptation of the bourgeoise public sphere, where people would ponder arguments soberly. Now it often resembles more an ongoing camorra war involving organised bands of trolls than debate in any way or form. The original idealised liberal view was mistaken from the very start, because Habermas' model did not correctly represent even the *actual* bourgeoise public sphere, where the ideal communicative situation was always far from reality.

La fantasia che la scienza economica sia in qualche modo una "scienza dura" che risponde a leggi totalmente oggettive e immutabili è contraddetta dal fatto che gli economisti sono una delle categorie accademiche più politicizzate e "opinionate". Basta vedere Twitter. Una sociologia della conoscenza contemporanea dovrebbe spiegare come la trasformazione dell'economia da scienza umana in pseudoscienza dura è servita a nascondere l'elemento soggettivo/ideologico di diverse "scuole" di scienza economica che rispondono a interessi sociali diversi.

La cronaca degli ultimi giorni ci ricorda come molte figure di FdI (Donzelli, Bignami) vengano da FUAN (Fronte Universitario Azione Nazionale) e Fronte della Gioventù (giovanile dell'MSI) in cui militava Meloni.
Interessante per sociologia politica per 2 ragioni: 🧵 Prima di tutto ci mostra come questa classe dirigente sia piuttosto "strutturata" sia ideologicamente che politicamente. Si tratta di persone cresciute in "giovanili" e "universitarie" di partito. Cosa ben diversa dalla classe dirigente dell'era Berlusconi raccolta qua e là. 1/

David Harvey has a point when he says that all the talk about "civil society" - as the embodiment of the resistance to "free market" in the post-89 left discourse - is a net result of neoliberalism demolition and delegitimisation of the state unwittingly internalised by the left. From Marcos onward left imaginary is all about mobilising "global civil society", movement of movements etc. Parties looked at with suspicion, not admitted to World Social Forum, the state viewed as either irrelevant or as just a big truncheon at the service of market forces.

Neo-statism Brazilian style: the focus of Lula's programme "Plano de transformação e reconstrução do Brasil" is the development of a "transformative state" after the demolition of the state during the years of Bolsonaro. The programme includes some familiar socialist-populist measures: elimination of a ceiling to state spending, recuperation of transfer programmes (such as Bolsa Familia, minha casa, minha vida, etc), but there are also interesting developments in the field of industrial policy.

Vi ricordate quando Letta propose una patrimonialina e successe il finimondo che sembrava che su Twitter tutti fossero proprietari di Lambo? Dopo 24 ore non se ne seppe più niente. Intanto in Spagna quella tassa l'hanno fatta e non è finito il mondo.
rtve.es/noticias/20221… I media spagnoli parlano di una chiara accelerazione del governo sul cammino socialdemocratico. eldiario.es/politica/sanch…

Nonostante il livello del dibattito spesso non sia eccelso è significativo che nell'ultima settimana la discussione sul Twitter /pol italiano sia stata su neoliberismo vs. statalismo. Siamo a una fase di passaggio storica ed è momento di bilanci e previsioni. 🧵 Il dibattito è stato scatenato da una frase di Elly Schlein, che ha dichiarato che "va cambiato il modello neo-liberista che ha portato il pianeta sull'orlo del collasso e le persone a non arrivare a fine mese". Ma negli ultimi anni sono molti a sollevare critiche simili. 1/

It's interesting that in Italy the troubled family history of Giorgia Meloni has not been covered at all during the election campaign. It's only surfacing now and the fact that it's reported has sparked outrage. In the UK/US it would have made newspaper headlines a long time ago. Obv Meloni has no responsibility for what her estranged father did. If anything the story is a positive for her, showing she succeeded despite difficult circumstances. Its only interest is in terms of political psychology: reactionary politics is often a politics of compensation.

It's already a year since the publication of my book "The Great Recoil". I am happy about the way the book's argument about the shift from neoliberalism to neostatism has contributed to debates about the current conjunture. If you are interested you can purchase it on Verso's website here 👇
versobooks.com/books/3774-the…

It's hard to explain to a foreign audience what is happening in Italy with Meloni, and how this is possible. But it is easier to understand once you consider this: Italy is the Western country that has suffered the most severe and prolonged economic decline over the last decades. From the peak of the 1980s it has been basically been a downward slope, with some small upswings on the way, when it comes to many indicators. Consider this: now Italians are earning less in real terms than they did in the 1990s!

Mélenchon 2017-2022: from tribune of the people to radical socialdemocrat. A short 🧵 The result of Mélenchon-led coalition #NUPES with 26.1% of the votes ahead of Macron’s Ensemble is impressive. More than double the result of Melenchon’s France Insoumise in 2017 (11%). But it is also Melenchon’s politics/strategy that have evolved. 1/7

Preparing for tomorrow's debate on the contemporary meaning of sovereignty, I found this piece a v useful summary of debates on the term. For some sovereignty does not make sense anymore in a global world. For others the notion has never been more salient. euideas.eui.eu/2022/03/16/sov… Argument about futility of sovereignty is familiar. Sovereignty dated concept, connected to nation-state. In global world flows cut across national borders -> sovereignty becomes irrelevant. Example of argument is book by Mark Mazower quoted in article. muse.jhu.edu/book/36266

Sempre più convinto che interesse esasperato per geopolitica porti a grandi sbandate
1. Confonde paesi con ideologie (un po’ come a tempo paesi guida USA/URSS)
2. Logica di forza ha sopravvento su legittimità/consenso che sono importanti anche in guerra (vedi bassa morale russa) Tutto comincia con un abbonamento a Limes.