I've always loved traveling, seeing other countries, meeting people, and learning from them. School trips abroad were a great introduction to traveling. I grew up in Italy in the '80s, and my first trip abroad with my school was to Paris by coach. Border controls were tedious, and dealing with a different currency in France was annoying. However, things soon started to change. In 1986, the Single European Act (SEA) aimed to revise the Treaties of Rome, setting up the European Economic Community (EEC) and promising an internal market where goods, people, services, and capital could move freely.
School trips became more interesting with more destination options. Our school even took my brother's class to Strasbourg to visit the European Parliament. At the time, I thought they were incredibly lucky; it felt like they were witnessing the birth of something new and exciting and, in my mind, I imagined a place where people spoke multiple languages and collaborated together for the benefit of the community.
My excitement grew over the years. In 1990, new regulations extended the freedom of movement to students, pensioners, and the unemployed, along with their families, with some limitations. The right to free movement finally applied to all Member State nationals in 1992 with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, which created the European Union and introduced the concept of common European citizenship.
At the end of the '90s, I benefited from the Erasmus (European Community Action Scheme for Mobility of University Students) program, established by the European Union in 1987. It gave me the chance to study in the UK and meet people from all over the world. The mobility provided by the European Union allowed me to return to study at other universities in the UK (to this day, I think I'm one of the few Italians, if not the only one, who, in just four years, was enrolled in all three major universities in Glasgow) and to work there as well.
When the UK voted for Brexit, I took it personally, feeling as if I, as a European citizen, I had failed in proving that cultural exchanges provided mutual benefits to people moving to other countries and to the country welcoming them. Obviously, I also worried about the impact on the movement of people and goods and the funding of various projects, from education and scientific research to urban redevelopment schemes. You didn't need to be an economics expert to see that Brexit was going to harm different sectors. Even Margaret Thatcher, known for her opposition to European integration (which contributed heavily to her downfall eventually…), supported staying in the European Economic Community in the 1975 referendum. At the time, to make her point, she went as far as wearing a sweater with the flags of the nine countries in the common market: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, West Germany, Ireland, Denmark, and the United Kingdom.
But Brexit wasn't the only challenge for the European Union. We were supposed to be open, borderless, and learn from each other, but, as migration from other countries increased, instead of finding integration policies, Europe has been overwhelmed by an anti-migrant sentiment. For decades in Italy, a country that could greatly benefit from regulating migrants for employment across various sectors, right-wing parties contributed to spread hostile feelings towards migrants.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently struck a deal with Albania to set up a processing center at the Shëngjin port and a reception center for 880 asylum seekers, along with a detention center for 144 people in the Gjadër municipality. Adult men denied protection in Italy will be sent to these centers, costing millions as the Italian government will have to hire a private ship to transfer people from Italian vessels to Albania (it is not clear how and where assessments will be made to decide who should be sent to Albania).
But attitudes towards migrants have changed all over Europe: according to the Eurobarometer, a collection of public opinion surveys conducted on behalf of the EU Institutions since the early '70s, attitudes towards immigration have actually hardened also among younger generations. A recent survey shows that 35% Europeans aged 15 to 24 and 42% of those aged 25 to 34 have a negative attitude towards immigration.
This change is evident in the results of the European Parliament elections. Between June 6th and 9th, Europeans in 27 countries voted to elect 720 Members of the European Parliament. The mood was not of elation as Austria, France and Germany showed a rise in far-right support. In Austria, far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) came out on top with 25.4% of the vote; in France, Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National) reached a historic high (31%) and, prompting France's President Emmanuel Macron to call for snap elections. In Germany, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) came second with 16%; besides, Brothers of Italy, led by the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, was a big winner too, scoring 28%, even though Meloni didn't manage to deliver the expected landslide.
As right-wing groups are divided in the European parliament between national-conservative and far-right and non-aligned parties, they will have a limited impact on the EU's political and policy agenda. Pro-European parties will still hold a majority in the European Parliament, yet the challenges that the Parliament will have to face are many - from the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict, to the climate crisis and the rise of AI.
Ursula von der Leyen is now working to secure a majority for a second term as European Commission president. Despite her European People's Party (EPP) maintaining its position as the largest group in the European Parliament with 186 of the 720 seats, the rise of far-right parties poses significant challenges. EU leaders will decide on her reappointment in late June, before the French parliamentary elections, but in the meantime Von der Leyen will have to consider alliances with the hard-right Eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) or the pro-European Greens.
In the meantime, Italy has also elected two new MEPs with very different views: Roberto Vannacci, a former army general and military attaché at Italy's embassy in Moscow, with extreme views on women, the LGBTQ+ community and immigrants, elected for Matteo Salvini's far-right League party; and Domenico "Mimmo" Lucano, the former mayor of Riace in Calabria, a small town where he created a visionary model for welcoming thousands of refugees. Accused in 2018 of aiding and abetting illegal immigration, Lucano was sentenced to a 13-year prison term, but most charges against him in what was clearly a political trial were dropped in 2023. Hopefully, Lucano, who was also re-elected as mayor of Riace, will manage to bring to the European Parliament his enlightened model for a human integration and bring back a bit of much needed optimism and faith in the European Union.
Who knows, he may even find an ally in Carola Rackete, elected for Die Linke (the Left). The activist and Sea-Watch 3 captain rescued Libyan refugees from drowning in the Mediterranean and landed them at Italian ports (earning five years ago the ire of right-wing politicians and in particular of the then Interior Minister Matteo Salvini...). Rackete's agenda will prioritize both environmental sustainability and climate resilience, ensuring that the financial burden of adapting to and mitigating climate change is equitably shared between affluent and less affluent nations.
Despite the challenges posed by rising anti-immigrant sentiment and the surge of far-right parties, the EU remains a beacon of unity and collaboration. Actually a renewed faith in the European Union can come from the creative industries, and in particular from the intersection of fashion and politics, that may offer a unique lens through which to view and champion democratic values - let's look at some examples.
In March, a senior member of Georgia's ruling party announced a plan to pass a discriminatory constitutional bill against "LGBT propaganda." The bill included measures such as banning information and public gatherings promoting same-sex relationships, prohibiting adoption by same-sex couples, and banning sex changes and recognition of non-binary genders.
In May, while people in Georgia were also protesting against another restrictive bill, the "foreign agents" law, fashion designer Aka Prodiashvili sent out on the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi runway a model clad in a blue dress inspired by the European Union flag.
In his collection Prodiashvili celebrates queer culture, and often combines feminine and masculine codes with the aesthetics of drag queens. While supporting LGBTQ+ rights, his dress also referenced Georgia's request to join the EU (that came in March 2022, one week after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine).
But while Prodiashvili's dress was about the possibility of entering the European Union and gaining LGBTQ+ rights (in the European Union LGBTQ+ rights are protected under the EU treaties and law), before the elections German-based duo Talbot Runhof created a vote dress to encourage people to vote, but that also celebrated sustainability and refugee rights.
The "Vote" dress was indeed made in collaboration with Talbot Runhof and the Munich upcycling atelier Bellevue Couture (launched by Munich costume designer Kissi Baumann and dancer and choreographer Margit Huber) from the social refugee project Bellevue di Monaco, a residential and cultural centre for refugees and other Munich citizens. The elaborate patchwork of European flags for the dress was made from leftover fabric scraps from Talbot Runhof’s production and two participants from the sewing workshop also collaborated in making the dress.
Complex dynamics await the European Parliament in the next few weeks, but let's hope that the spirit of cooperation and mutual respect will always prevail, ensuring that the continent remains open, inclusive, and forward-looking. Possibly with an optimistic fashion twist as well.
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