Planeta Porto Alegre: The Possible Social Europe

Planeta Porto AlegreThe Possible Social Europe

Voilà la différence! This is what the dispute is about. For the past three months France has lived, Colombani admits, “a debate like few in its history”. However, those analyzing this confrontation will easily see that the “no” vote has never meant a rejection to the European project. The French have expressed their belief that “a different Europe is possible,” as it was textually printed out in most advertisements spread through European cities. Such audacity has led the French to collide with what was qualified by Bernard Cassen, ATTAC’s President, as “the political midiatic aristocracy”.

Most of the means of communication in the country and France’s two main political parties acted in favor of the Treaty. Together they tried to build a concept of Europe that made democracy a façade, as it thorn it down to pieces. About two and a half centuries after the 1789 Revolution, what was left of the Social Contract? Citizens were asked to say yes to a Letter written by a commission of “notable people” – if they said no they would be classified as anti-European. And worse: although the European Union (EU) has become a block with bigger economic power than the US, those in favor of the Treaty have tried to include in the Constitution the logic ruling North American social life: competition, privatization and the dismantling of the Well Fare State.

In November 2004, the Copernicus Foundation, a political-cultural institution, took a step ahead. Guided by one of the Iluminism´s father’s ideas, it has build up the bridge between social movements and political parties claiming for Modernity. From that resulted the idea of the collectives, which have played an important role in the French case.

What will come after July 17th? The Italian magazine Carta, maybe the European publication that is most tuned with the movements related to the World Social Forum, suggests that the French should launch an appeal for a European Citizen Convention. It would take place in Paris, sometime soon. It would gather the civil society and social movements. It would bring about debates on the ways society can find to build up a Social Europe, therefore ending the paralysis that seems to have come over the “leaders” of the continent.