By Geraldina Colotti on February 29, 2024.
In Italy, the extreme right-wing government, led by Giorgia Meloni, is putting the pedal to the metal of authoritarianism, trying to forge a European profile for itself based on the image of the “new Italian Thatcher” and as an element of international mediation in favor of the United States. Meanwhile, even the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, has publicly expressed his disagreement with the beatings of underage students protesting against the genocide in Palestine, which were repeated in several Italian cities.
And while an increasing number of families are indebted to banks and loan sharks to make ends meet, because even if they work their salary is not enough; while the deregulation of the labor market, initiated by previous “center-left” governments, continues to claim victims and has already raised to 145 deaths at work this year; while prices and taxes for the popular sectors increase and those of the rich decrease, the government continues its arms race, transforming the welfare state into a state of war, in line with the European Union.
However, Italy is the only country that, in the last twenty years, has seen a stagnation in per capita income (at constant purchasing power and exchange rate) compared to the plus 18 percent of the Eurozone and the plus 28 percent of the United States, whose war options it continues to pay for. The popular classes suffer from the lack of real opposition to the decisions of supranational institutions. A situation that, as in other European countries and beyond, has paved the way for the false anti-establishment radicalism of the extreme right.
Since 2014, European states plus Canada have increased their military budgets by $600 billion. And by 2024 most NATO countries will spend at least 2% on defense. Poland has already reached 4%, while Chancellor Scholz’s Germany has already earmarked 100 billion euros for defense. Moreover, the EU has even decided to allocate funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) to arm Zelensky in Ukraine. The resources, allocated in 2021 by the European Commission to recover the losses caused by the pandemic, amount to €191.5 billion, divided into six missions: Digitalization, Innovation, Competitiveness and Culture. But the imperialist war must be the driving force, as the war effort absorbs more and more resources.
Now, to carry out new military missions, the EU no longer hides behind humanitarian intervention, but explicitly says it is about defending its commercial interests, as is the case in the Red Sea, where Yemeni Houthis boycott ships in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance.
The EU launched in record time the Aspides mission, the naval shield for merchant ships sailing between Hormuz, the Gulf of Aden and Suez, confirming Brussels’ aspiration to present itself as a maritime power, following the guidelines of the 2014 naval strategy, updated last year, and which from 2022 also focused on the riches of the Indian Ocean.
As a consequence of the Athens-Paris-Washington military pact, which weighs heavily on the EU, Greece has supreme command of the mission and also participates in Prosperity Guardian, the U.S. operation. In addition to the Italian ship Caio Duilio, already in the Red Sea and admiral ship of the mission, a German, a French and a Belgian frigate will be at sea. Spain has withdrawn, while the Netherlands and Denmark, participants in Prosperity Guardian, are involved behind the scenes in the Anglo-American incursions in Yemen.
The mission, however, promises to open up to other countries, possibly even Arabs, considering that the Houthi resistance has already caused the number of containers sailing through the Red Sea to drop by 30%. European countries bore most of the costs of the mission. Just to move the ships, maintain them and fly the planes, the U.S. has already had to spend nearly $2 billion. And they are also passing on to EU countries the cost of the weapons to be delivered to the bulimic Zelensky. And now, France’s President Emmanuel Macron has signaled that “we should not exclude” sending Western troops to Ukraine to support the West’s clown in its war against Russia.
“We will win!”, Zelensky continued to shout on the second anniversary of the conflict, promising his godfathers a new counter-offensive which – he claimed – this time will remain secret. The stage was set by his friend Meloni, who rushed to Kiev for the first meeting of the Italian presidency of the G7, along with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Canada’s Prime Minister. Justin Trudeau.
Zelensky praised Meloni’s support, but claimed that in Italy “there are still too many Putinists” and promised to provide a list of people who should be denied visas or expelled from the country. Representatives of some European countries – France, Germany, Italy and Spain as permanent guest – are also participating in the G20 meetings in Brazil, which holds the pro tempore presidency. Lula da Silva is trying to dictate a different direction, with the proposal to create a Global Alliance against hunger and poverty. All G20 member countries, including the African Union and the European Union, the various guest countries and international organizations such as the IDB, EPCAL, the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, UNESCO, FAO, WHO and UNICEF, among others, are to participate.
For the first meeting, Brazil recalled that, in the world, the income of the richest people is 38 times higher than that of the poorest, since the richest 10% owns 76% of the planet’s wealth, while the poorest 50% owns only 2%. And he recalled that, according to FAO figures, 735 million people suffer from hunger, although the planet has the capacity to produce food to feed all its inhabitants.
What we want with the Alliance,” said Brazil, “is a practical mechanism to mobilize financial resources and knowledge from where they are most abundant and channel them to where they are most needed. Thus supporting the implementation and scaling up of actions, policies and programs at the national level”.