An election, whether it is local, national or European, has characteristics like those of our being as humans. It has its own language with a specialised register of lexicon, grammar and idiom. Its language is centred on the two keywords of democracy and institutional representation, which seem to inundate the electorate in the weeks leading to voting day.
Its non-verbal language includes smiles, gestures, handshakes and hugging with party activists. An election language seeks to transmit a message, a programme, but its purpose is not just communication. It is for knowledge and understanding of certainty and truth.
A language of truth has to be radiant in its transparency. There is another human characteristic in elections. Like the clouds which play hide and seek, elections capture our moods, our shades of likes and dislikes. They tease our emotions.
They are a way of approval and disapproval, encouragement and protest, success and failure. Whitish and scattered like the clouds, they raise our hopes, when they are dense and blackish they threaten us. They foreshadow a new direction of government, for the better or the worse, a wind of change.
They speak of our goals and aspirations for the country we love, of trends and patterns of behaviour. There is indeed a rich language in elections, which means elections are more than just a one-off event that comes and goes, leaving life business-as-usual.
It is a situation that calls for critical questions to think about if one wants to maximise elections’ political potential. ‘What am I voting for?’ ‘What are the real issues and concerns?’ ‘Who can best address them?’ ‘What vision for my locality, nation, Europe?’
When focusing on the European Parliament elections, issues crop up. Europe’s history, freedom, nationalism, the environment and illegal immigration may be considered as real challenges for Europe today.
Europe is distinguished by one common feature: its long tradition of Christian values which has shaped the soul of Europe. Irrespective of the new waves of secularisation, the constant struggle for the separation of Church and State, and the quest for moral relativism of post-modernism, Christianity has remained the cultural sub-structure of Europe which has fed into the value of freedom as the basis of human rights.
It is from freedom that belief systems, free speech and association, choice of education, the right to family life and the impartiality of the judicature are born. It is freedom which drives free movement of people, goods, capital and services. It is the sacredness of freedom, bounded by respect for human dignity, that should militate against exaggerated nationalism and populism.
The aim of right-wing nationalists is not to split up the European Union but to transform its economy, trade and citizens’ rights from within. Taking a cue from Europe’s economic slow-down, increasing rates of unemployment and illegal immigration, they form alliances with whoever is on their side, conservatives and progressives, Christians and atheists, Catholics and Protestants.
Their cause is championed by populists like Matteo Salvini’s Lega Nord, Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, Marine Le Pen’s far-right Nationalist Party and the Vox Party which has garnered more than 10 per cent of the latest Spanish popular vote.
But pacts and alliances are not of the essence of Europe. Social solidarity and subsidiarity are what make up the social fabric of Europe. The answer to the ultra-nationalist rhetoric is to rest on education in and for solidarity. This will ensure a shift from exclusive to inclusive policies where national sovereignties are shared within a democratic framework of common European citizenship which can sit comfortably with national citizenship.
The pride of Europe in the richness of its natural, historical, cultural and social environment is to be protected
An exclusive language in respect of foreigners can be replaced by an inclusive discourse and integration programmes of education, fear by acceptance, weaknesses by potentialities. This can provide a road for a programme of burden sharing in the issues of illegal immigration which has long been a sore thorn in the side of Europe. Collective responsibility and solidarity, coupled with education for diversity, can also be means of strengthening national pride and security.
Root causes of illegal immigration and rising rates of people displacements need to be tackled at European level. Among them, the delicate political situation in Libya, complicated by organised human trafficking, poverty, ill-health and negative effects of climate change. These can be addressed by more sustainable development and the use of environment-friendly new technologies.
The pride of Europe in the richness of its natural, historical, cultural and social environment is to be protected as an important European legacy for present and future generations.
Europe is not the Europe of big or small countries, the North or South, East or West. It is a Europe of people with all the beauty in its variety of languages and cultures. It is not the Europe of class, race or privileged groups. It is a Europe of Citizens, equal in human dignity, the enjoyment of rights, equal entitlement of access to goods, services and social mobility. It is a social Europe based on solidarity which goes beyond the narrow partisan politics, generation of monies through free trade relations and statistical models by international rating mechanisms projecting increasing national economic growths. More importantly, it is not a Europe of contrasts and the playing of partisan emotions with the rhetoric of comparisons in political achievements. What relevance do the European Parliament elections have with the Maltese Labour Party’s rhetoric on contrasts between those who are for Malta and those who are against Malta, with xenophobia and love of foreigner, political delivery by Muscat and ideas by Delia?
Where is, in all this propaganda rhetoric, the social model of Europe introduced after the devastation of World War II by Jacques Delors who, from a common European citizen, rose as one of the founding fathers of Europe? This may be good strategy for a national election campaign but surely not for the cause of Europe in this day and age.
The clarion call is for balance and complementarity, for bridge-building mechanisms, between a rationalised sharing of national and European sovereignties, between real threats to national security and Europe-wide border support, racism and acceptance of diversity, national citizenship and European citizenship.
These common challenges for Europe are to be translated into actions by Maltese-European citizens who can use their intelligence to evaluate the call of Europe today, with the wisdom of discernment to know and understand the vision of a social model of Europe and act upon it as responsible citizens. The road ahead is for us to move on from common spectator Maltese and European citizens to participative architects of Europe.
Philip Said is former education officer and a Żebbuġ local councillor.
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece