*** ROBERT MENASSE: Un messager pour l'Europe. Plaidoyer contre les nationalismes. Buchet/Chastel (7 rue des Canettes, F- 75006 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 44320560 - fax: 44320561 - Email: informations@lib aella.fr - Internet: http://www.buchetchastel.fr ). 2015, 138 pp. €16. ISBN 978-2-283-02832-2.
Robert Menasse is obviously not a specialist on the European institutions, neither does he master all the subtleties of the jargon predominantly used in this environment. He often confuses, for example, the European Council with the Council of Ministers; for him, the Commission proposes directives and “orders” and not regulations and the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) originally led to the “High Instance” and not the High Authority prefiguring the Commission. No, Robert Menasse is not an expert in European construction but he does, indeed, love the concept of Europe as sought by the “Founding Fathers”. This book is a burning and impassioned letter of love sent by an Austrian essayist to a Europe born out of a, “blood drenched determination to go beyond nationalism through a post-national process organised and led by supranational institutions”. It is also a cry of anger, indeed fury, against all those in the capital cities of member states who are undermining the civilising project in the name of sovereignty, national identity and democracy, which they believe can only prevail in the nation state…
The book opens with the reminder of a message posted by “a Facebook friend”, an erudite German, even though the author began the drafting of this essay, “The European Union is our Death! instantly attracting likes from many friends”. To which he immediately retorted, “Yes, the Death of the European Union is our Death! And it's all for the Best"! His entire premise is divided into thirty-seven short articles written as if they were news items, underpinning this radical point of view. He writes with swashbuckling aplomb and conviction that give him free rein to attack what appear to be the most impregnable of national citadels. No one is spared his indignant attacks, incensed by his misfortune to be a European and betrayed by the meanderings of the political leaders who, in contrast to "Konrad Adenauer and the elites…of the epoch” had learnt the harsh lessons of the, "recently curbed infatuation of the Germans for Nazi ideology" and are increasingly failing to understand that the voice of the people is not always necessarily the voice of God, far from it. The times appear to be now more of a return to a kind of "national ecstasy" in the defence of "national interests" but when actually listening to them, appear nothing other than "a huge deception" because they are in fact nothing other than the defence of the, "interests of the national political and economic (financial) elites". He also argues that in the name of national democracies that are claimed to be the only ones that are legitimate, the member states prevent the emergence of an indispensable European democracy. Although Robert Menasse believes that the European Parliament should not be a "political dumping ground" he is actually criminalising the double game played by the national political parties and that to "democratise the European Union they need to pull the rug up from beneath the feet of our shabby provincial politicians". One of the main culprits for this deadly treason is the European Council which, although it claims to be the most democratically legitimate body, the author actually believes that it is the, "highest level of nationalism and not democracy, which is a level that is still not been reached" within the Union. He believes that it is essentially a body where national interests are defended and where the interests of all Union citizens are the least of its concerns. He argues that it is indeed the interests of the strongest state, Germany, which usually prevails over all the others, with Chancellor Angela Merkel, "this woman who owes everything to Germany's national redemption" who has managed to impose the law according to her in the Greek crisis by using the country's obsession with fighting inflation and subsequently avoiding a new Hitler coming to power but whilst totally forgetting that in Germany they had, "between hyperinflation and Hitler, several years of austerity policies which made or helped make Hitler possible". This is definitely an interpretation that given the times we are living in makes us sit up and pay attention.
These are therefore some of the arrows aimed by the author but do they all hit the bull's-eye? Perhaps not but all of them are food for thought and examine the destiny that our current political leaders are creating in the Union. According to Robert Menasse they are all pertinent because the European Union is well and truly "our" death and which is currently being, played out because, "either the Europe of national states dies or either the project of getting beyond national states dies". In the latter case, Europe will have definitively proved to the world, "that it is not possible to learn lasting lessons from history", which subsequently leads him to this very pertinent but also impertinent moral conclusions that, "if in this case, our irresponsible politicians find themselves in front of the smouldering ruins and are left stammering with a sorry air", we have to ensure that this never happens again! and " a huge sardonic laugh will resonate along the dark corridors of history". No, this man is neither an expert or a European leader, just a very lucid European citizen…
Michel Theys
*** Fedechoses… pour le fédéralisme. Presse fédéraliste (Maison de l'Europe et des Européens, 242 rue Duguesclin, F-69003 Lyon. Internet: http://www.pressefederaliste.eu ). December 2015, No. 170, 40 pp. €8. Annual subscription: €30.
Terrorism and borders being thrown up again in the Schengen area, a failing migration policy, the threat of Brexit, a rise almost everywhere throughout Europe of populist and extremist parties - these are some of the subjects tackled in this edition of Fedechoses. They are also a cry of anger, on the lines of the editorial, criticising the member states and, "national political classes, that have been largely discredited by their impotence" whilst they, "continue to cling to the memories of their past glories" and refuse to make, "the decisive step towards the European federation". Our editorialist describes the, "best terrain for fascism being the crisis of the nationstate and the best antidote to it being the construction of a federal rampart of European democracy". Is this all a bit excessive? Reading the pages that follow the point of view of the acknowledged political figure and former President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, these ideas do not appear to be excessive in the least. The argument resumes some of the "lessons" delivered to the University of Pavia last November by the friend of the, "soldier of a single cause, the European Union", Altiero Spinelli. He who was also a brilliant MEP, denounces the current behaviour of many leaders and political currents who are guilty at the European level to have, "left the reactions of rejection and turning in on oneself to ferment; anachronistic illusions of maintaining the present and extending the expectations born in the past". He also supports the positions of the young French federalists who call for a better Europe to be reconstructed because the current danger is no longer sclerosis in Europe but its actual downfall. (MT)
*** LUCA BURAZIN, DORDE GARDASEVIC, ALESSIO SARDO (Editors): Law and State. Classical Paradigms and Novel Proposals. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). « Central and Eastern European Forum for Legal, Political, and Social Theory Yearbook » series, No. 5. 2015, 221 pp.. ISBN 978-3-631-66692-0.
This book was produced after the sixth CEE Forum organised by Zagreb Faculty of Law two years ago. Its two main themes helped mobilise the forum participants and the authors to write their 12 different contributions. The first focuses on the important features of law, the second on contemporary state functions, positions and crisis management. With regard to the question of the state, questions are asked about whether the notions of "liberal", "social" or "welfare" states are still applicable in an era when the question of the state's primary role as that of "guardian" of private interests, for example those of citizens, is questioned. In the context of overall "privatisation" trends in all areas of the social services, the authors look at the repercussions of regionalisation and the development of supranational organisations and institutions of which the European Union is the symbol and how a new kind of relationship developed by these with individuals can be verified. (PLa)
*** STATHIS KALYVAS, NIKOS MARANTZIDIS: Les passions civiles. Vingt-trois questions et réponses sur la guerre civile grecque. Editions Metaixmio (118 rue Ippokratous, GR-11472 Athens. Tel: (30-211) 3003500 - fax: 3003562 - Email: Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. - Internet: http://www.metaixmio.gr ). 2015, 528 pp. €16.60. ISBN 978-618-03-0068-0.
This book returns to the painful subject of the Greek Civil War by way of a number of responses provided to 23 critical questions relating to the situation of the time of the Civil War and the heritage that it has bequeathed us. The question of heritage is obviously the most sensitive, insofar as it raises, for example, the question of who were the people responsible for the civil war breaking out. It also begs the question of what future would the country have had if the communists had won. These questions haunt everyone and characterise the public debate that has taken place over the decades following the war. Overtime, one interpretation appears to have prevailed regarding the national-populist split of the past where the West was the principled guilty party for the country's ills. In this book, Stathis Kalyvas, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Yale and his colleague Nikos Marantzidis (University of Macedonia in Salonika and guest lecturer at the Charles University in Prague and University of Warsaw) provide an interpretation of this complex event, which painfully divided people and destroyed a country, whilst wounding both the collective memory and national identity. The Civil War has for many years remained a source of tension, discord and passion. The authors sought to provide a cautious and objective revisit and rethink, without wanting to cast blame for who was right or wrong. Their aim is to illustrate the different aspects and dimensions of this conflict, as unearthed in scores of different recent studies focusing on the subject and subsequently help develop a collective awareness that goes beyond the different individual interpretations on the subject. Their conclusion, nevertheless, reveals that there are still more questions than answers which are still crawling around in the shadows of people's minds and it will be up to future generations of researchers to help provide further clarification on the subject. (AKa)
*** ANTONIS KOKORIKOS: Le plan pour le pays. Une nouvelle vision d'ethnogenèse au 21ème siècle. Editions Sideris (116 rue Solonos, GR-10681 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3833434 - fax: 3832294 - Email: contact@isideris.gr). 2016, 620 pp. €18. ISBN 978-960-08-0700-4.
Greece is told every day that it needs a "national plan". Undoubtedly but what should this be? Geographical position influences what policy should be taken, just as history dictates what can be achieved by the people inhabiting a certain corner of the earth. Culture also reveals who the Greeks are and unveils what they have already achieved. In this book, the journalist Antonis Kokorikos, a specialist in political analysis for several media sources for over 30 years, argues that the Greek population remains more than ever the subject of history and that it is up to it to continue to create its own future whilst going through the myths and highlighting how this history has been engraved in stone. He subsequently provides his readers with the challenge of relocating their roots in an effort to go forward more effectively and he talks about the country's physiognomy, the culture in the region, the Greek language and its contents, the gradual affirmation of the Greek state, and the first efforts of the Balkan peoples to emancipate themselves from Ottoman tutelage. Over the course of the book he subsequently reveals the continuity of the Greek people from the 18th century up until the present day… (AKa)
*** YANNIS LOULIS: Le nouvel acte de la tragédie grecque. « Phénomène Tsipras », négociation catastrophique, crise sans fin en vue. Editions Kastaniotis (11 rue Zalongou, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3301208 - fax: 3842431 - Email: info@kastaniotis.com - Internet: http://www.kastaniotis.com ). 2016, 272 pp. €15.90. ISBN 978-960-03-6016-5.
This book is the third published by a political analyst and reputed editorialist on the question of the crisis affecting Greece. The first two books were called « La grande peine » (The Great Sorrow) and « L'effondrement des partis au pouvoir du nouveau régime » (The Collapse of the Parties in Power in the New Regime). The main link between these three books is Alexis Tsipras, who, shortly after Syriza's election victory and his appointment as Prime Minister, dramatically announced that his country was prepared to, "bring down the state" and that an exit from the Eurozone was imminent. What happened afterwards, how and why? These are in fact the questions that Yannis Loulis seeks to explore, whilst explaining that everything began with the fatal choice of the Minister for the Economy, Yanis Varoufakis, as the country's negotiator. What were the fundamental mistakes that he committed, with whom and what have those been since he left the government? Why did Prime Minister Tsipras agree to arrange a problematic referendum? Facing the abyss what lifebelt would it have been best to have taken? Why was the split within Syriza inevitable? Why was the New Democracy centre-right group unable to compete with Tsipras despite his mistakes but which did not prevent him from clearly winning last September's elections? To what extent has Tsipras been wounded? How long can he still face up to New Democracy, which has a new complexion and new leadership? How should the "Tsipras phenomenon" be interpreted? These are some of the many questions to which the author seeks to provide answers. He points out that 2015 was a new act in the Greek tragedy and the country had become embroiled in a political and economic crisis and vicious circle. The author's position leads him to doubt that the country's political leaders will be capable of getting the country out of its current mess, at least in the short term. (AKa)