"I am (...)glad you're sitting here today, as we can therefore argue with you: we owe this to Nicole Fontaine too. Had she not manouvred in such a way as to stop for such a long time the procedures of immunity against Berlusconi and Dell'Utri, your assistant, you would not be here today, because you would not have the immunity you need". "[Bossi] is a member of your government, and any statement this gentleman makes is worse than anything that may have urged this Parliament to adopt resolutions against Austria and the participation of FPOE in the Austrian government"..

It is not bad to reread the central passage of the speech through which, in the seat of the European Parliament, deputy Martin Schulz wished success in the work of term-president of the EU. It is not bad so as to avoid focusing only on the reaction by the receiver such declarations caused, but also because they deserve something more than simple rereading. The malice of the German SPD chief delegate was not aimed at Berlusconi because of his alleged conflicts of interest or the so-called Lodo Maccanico: by virtue of his office, Herr Schulz benefits from certainly much wider immunities, compared to the safeguards the Lodo Maccanico introduces in Italy for the five top State officials. The reason for the Teutonic kindnesses addressed to the Cavaliere is elementary: he is seriously guilty of leading a centre-right government and being friendly to the USA of G. W. Bush. This is a pet hate of the remainings of the World Olive Tree Alliance, who are therefore bound to polemize and do it more effectively and less roughly than in the past.

In 1994 some leftist members of European governments refused to shake hands with colleagues elected by the Italian people. It is hard to act this way now: President Berlusconi is a weighty partner of the EPP; Vice President of the Council of Ministers Gianfranco Fini is a significant member of the UEN, gaining acknowledged prestige on the European scene and contributing to the delicate game that will define the future institutional set-up of the Continent. No carper would be trustworthy. Therefore, since we are only at the beginning, we should stop and outline the scenario.

Even though someone will call it just "fate", let me mention Divine Providence, who arranges events and their protagonists by conjunctions and consonances in such a way it is hard to conclude as fortuitous. A few observations: the strongest nation on earth is today led by a man of the Right, not in the same sense we mean "right" in Italy, but certainly light years from the liberal influence of his predecessor. He is a man who's unafraid to openly declare he derives his strenght from prayer, who founds his political action on respect for natural law, and not only in theoretical statements, as his decisions regarding bioethics clearly show. At present, the nation where the Roman civilization was born and where the successor of Peter has resided for two thousand years is led by an entrepeneur who built his success on work and never felt ashamed to declare himself to be a firm anti-communist with no inferiority complexes. The second most important member of the government coalition - Alleanza Nazionale - spells out its political and cultural right-wing roots. From July 1, 2003, Silvio Berlusconi is also serving his term as President of the European Union. Will it be disrespectful to add a further element of qualitative significance? On November 14, 2002, a bent old man entered Montecitorio and spoke there "well aware of the strong meaning of the presence of the successor of Peter in the Italian Parliament" for the first time in history. That day, with a fatigue-broken voice, the Pontiff outlined the ideal and practical road to the spiritual, moral and material regeneration of our country, and of all Europe through it, thus confirming his teachings begun 25 years ago. This is not an astral conjunction: it is a nexus of circumstances that can be defined as historic with no fear of overstatement. At present the USA's administration and the Italian government, together with Spain among others, represent what has been called Magna Europa, that is the combination of the Old Continent (source of the common roots) and the New Continent (moulded by the European and Christian man). The world-view contained in these religious (sure, religious! The debate concerning the Christian roots of Europe in the text of the Convention is not nominalistic), cultural and political coordinates is a summary of what the Left hates from the depths of its core. If it's true what Russell Kirk taught about Washington as a synthesis, a legacy and an adaption of four great towns and the civilization they represent: Jerusalem, Athens, Rome and London, in spite of all their flaws through the ages, then at present a true Europe can probably be found more easily in New Jersey than in Amsterdam (with all due respect for Holland).

A few days ago, the head of the Italian government became President of the EU. This means, not only symbolically, that the leaderships of both the old and the new Continent are homogeneous, and they are right-wing. Why be surprised if this constitutes grounds for controversy? If we were to be praised by the Left, then we'd better wonder were our mistake was.

When voters gave, certainly not under constraint, a wide mandate to a right-wing government and not to the Left it was to carry out right-wing policies, as Monsieur De la Palisse would say. It is the same Right that in Italy, as in Europe, as in the USA, traces its roots back to the wisdom of the Greeks, the Roman Law, the Germano-Roman Christianity, the finest intuitions of European humanism. The Left is stuck in Castroist glories. Trying its darndest to find a significant ancestry, the political left can at best trace its origins to the rites of the goddess Reason which, together with the glories of guillotine, characterized the Revolution of 1789.

To make myself clear: critics have been too few, Others are welcome. Let them increase...

When Left protests and get entangled in its own verbosity it is precisely because Right is doing well. Even if my reflections were not valid (but they are), let us imagine ourselves in the shoes of a leftist who, in just a few months, has passed from the dream of a world Olive Tree into the current scenario. And do not underestimate the last ring of a heavily ideological chain that could not handle Silvio Berlusconi with kid gloves: his resolute support to the Iraqi mission. Do you really believe Herr Schulz's kind welcome speech was influenced more by Berlusconi's conflicts of interest than by his deliverance from the Franco-German axis? Let's face up the adventure of this European semester as an effort for a serene assertion of the identity of the Continent as well as of the nation we belong to and love so deeply. If the Left, still clinging to some residual positions in the Old Continent, is heralding six months of controversies, let it know that we will be pleased. We'd be worried by their absence and their prosecution will attest that the road we have taken is the right road.

Alfredo Mantovano, Undersecretary of State for the Interior