Roots

Something is moving in Iran. Beneath the repressive surface of the ayatollahs’ regime, movements of popular rebellion are once again emerging with force. These are no longer isolated episodes, but persistent signs of a deep fracture between society and power. Women, young people, students, workers: a growing part of the Iranian people openly challenges a […]

The refrain of 2025, since Trump and the MAGA movement took control of the White House, has been that Europe is irrelevant, that Europe is doomed, that Europe is too weak to react, that Europe is a clay pot among iron pots, that Europe is a prey among predators, that Europe is divided, that Europe […]

Thirty years have passed since theDayton Agreement that ended the Balkan War of the early 1990s. Precisely in that conflict, the arts played a fundamental role both in spreading the ideology of aggression and in opposing it; music and the visual arts, in fact, became vehicles of national, ethnic and religious identities that the warmongers […]

In the European public debate, liberalism and laissez-faire often evoked as separate, sometimes even antagonistic categories. The former is referred to when talking about rights, civil liberties and the rule of law; the latter is reduced to a rigid, when not caricatured, economic paradigm associated with the absence of rules and the uncontrolled dominance of […]

While the squares of the West boil with selective fury, the world is splitting along a fault line that is no longer geographical, but anthropological. On the one side, theIran of the regime that today, 3 January 2026, threatens ‘total chaos’ by the mouth of Khamenei; on the other, the muscular populism of Donald Trump […]

In the symbolic passage between a year that closes and one that opens, the words of the leaders of China and Taiwan have turned the spotlight on one of the most delicate knots in contemporary international politics. From Beijing to Taipei, official New Year’s speeches are not mere rhetorical rituals: they draw lines of intent, […]

In contemporary public discourse, freedom is a ubiquitous and, for this very reason, increasingly fragile word. It is invoked to justify lifestyles, personal tastes, consumer choices, opinions and is often identified with the possibility of choosing between available alternatives, expressing preferences, moving without immediately visible obstacles. And yet, never before has freedom seemed to coexist […]

“How to tell your child the truth about Santa?”Among the countless daily trifles that our society has turned into serious psychological problems, there is also this one.New York Times, CNN, BBC have all addressed the annoying question in at least one report, interviewing experts and dispensing advice to the hyper-anxious parents of the digital age. […]

Europe, if it wants to survive itself, must rediscover the courage of its roots. Not out of nostalgia, but out of lucidity. Every great political construction is in fact born from a vision of man and power, not from a simple technical compromise. The Federalism of Europe In this sense, European federalism is not one […]

There is a very long history, older than philosophy and even writing, that we should listen to again today if we want to talk seriously about humanism and liberalism. It is the story of the Sign. In the Palaeolithic era, whenHomo sapiens sapiens draws a figure in the cave, he is not ‘decorating’ a wall: […]

‘If she makes it through the night, she’s safe’: how many times have we heard that from doctors in the movies?Well, for Europe, the night to overcome will be that of Friday 19 December. From that night it can emerge strengthened and cured of its historical ills, or it can emerge virtually dead. Already at […]

As the Catholic Jubilee year draws to a close, the European consciousness is once again being called to question the relationship between tradition and progress, where the former is usually more rooted in spirituality, and the latter in secular and liberal horizons. From Greece to today, the tension between faith and reason has spanned every […]

As fate would have it, the theme of escape never becomes obsolete. The need to get away from the place of danger is in human (and other) logic: we run for our lives in the hope of getting to safety. The masters of art have often dealt with it, including – and surprisingly – Marc […]

Religious freedom, Manzoni, Dostoevsky and the unfinished building site of Europe On 7 December 1965, on the eve of the closing of Vatican II, the council hall approved one of the last texts of the Council, but perhaps the most explosive for modernity: the declaration ‘Dignitatis humanae’ on religious freedom. Today, 7 December 2025, as […]

On Thursday, 18 December, the European Council, the body formed by the 27 heads of state or government (along with presidents Costa and Von der Leyen), will have to take one of the most difficult foreign policy decisions in its history. What are ‘frozen Russian assets’? In the banks of European countries, there are EUR […]

In the space of just a few months, the United States has been shaken by two momentous events that shed light on an ever-increasing political polarisation. For the first time in history, New York, one of the world’s most important cities and a symbol of American power, chose a mayor who embodies everything but the […]

Today is 25 November and, as happens punctually every year, a beacon has brought one of the darkest scourges of our society back into focus: violence against women. The day was created to say enough is enough, to leave no more room for silence, to scream that it is not acceptable for a woman to […]

Why his legacy remains a warning to those who have forgotten the strength of the free world. The last true Republican With the death of Dick Cheney, one of the last interpreters of a serious, institutional, moral conservatism disappears. A man of power in the fullest – but also noblest – sense of the term, […]

At the beginning of October, the Organisation of Turkish States – which includes Turkey, Azerbaijan and the Central Asian ‘Stans’ – pledged to adopt a new common alphabet, which takes the Latin alphabet as a basis and adds eight new characters. While announcing the choice, which will change the daily lives of 200 million people, […]

There is a paradox hovering over European politics: Italy, the birthplace of the Ventotene Manifesto, and thus the cradle of the idea of a federal and united Europe, is today led by those who seem to deny its most authentic spirit. Giorgia Meloni, from the bench of Palazzo Chigi, launched yet another torpedo against that […]

Ever since the book of Revelation, the saints have been described as ‘an immense crowd that no one could count, coming from all nations, tribes, peoples and languages’.But rarely has this concept been expressed in such a plastic way as last Sunday, when Pope Leo proclaimed seven people saints, six of whom lived in Asia […]

As Isaia Urbani explains well in his recent article, there is no single people behind the name Gaza, but a mosaic of clans, extended families and tribal confederations. Those who have lived in the region for a long time know that the Strip is an archipelago of local powers, of hamula competing with each other […]

That there is a new flare-up of hatred against Jews in Italy, causing constant attacks and forcing many of them to hide the visible signs of their identity, is a fact. That Netanyahu’s crimes are just a pretext is another fact: today only a lunatic would feel authorised to attack a Syrian, a Libyan, a […]

The truce between Israel and Hamas opens an unexpected glimmer. But while some young people parade with banners celebrating 7 October as ‘Palestinian resistance’, others carry opposite signs: in Rondine Palestinian and Israeli flags tied together, in Assisi the march for peace. A reflection by the writer, a Catholic, a centre-left voter and heir to […]

An almost paradoxical aspect of the argument Francesca Albanese spends on Liliana Segre, sealed by a delightful reference to the ‘stumbling blocks’ of logic, is the contradiction of an axiom typical of the intersectional left. It is the idea that one’s identity, one’s experience, strengthens or weakens one’s legitimacy to express certain ideas or at […]

The massacre of October 7th, 2023, was not merely a regional tragedy. It was a civilizational rupture. Hamas’s attack on Israel—an act of calculated cruelty, not resistance—forced the world to confront a truth that polite diplomacy has long tried to conceal: Israel is not just fighting for its survival; it is fighting for the moral […]

From the jester who sang Christ in the squares to Occam’s scientific method, from Juvenal’s satire to Eco’s novel: because the national feast of Saint Francis speaks to us today about ancient roots, politics and the European future. A return that questions, but should not divide 4 October becomes a national holiday again. There is […]

There are a couple of things in the video of the mayor of Reggio Emilia, mr. Marco Massari, being challenged during the ceremony for the awarding of the First Tricolour to mrs. Francesca Albanese that make me feel sad. First of all, the outspoken intolerance of that audience, which in its heart believes to be […]

The diary of the Anonymous from Russia takes the testimony of both well-known dissidents who have remained in their homeland, those who have emigrated, ordinary citizens who still have the courage to express themselves on Russian social networks, and friends of the Anonymous who reveal their own daily lives and their reflections and analyses. The […]

Perhaps more than a murder of our times, the Kirk murder should be inscribed in today’s cultural rhetoric, fuelled by the silent masses that have allowed a certain culture to proliferate. People never act alone, never just on their own. Except for the insane. This principle also applies to individual attacks and so-called lone wolves. […]

Few people know that the only woman candidate in Cameroon’s presidential elections next October has Calabrian roots. Patricia Tomaino Ndam Njoya’s paternal grandfather was in fact originally from Calabria, and this family curiosity adds a special significance to her arrival in Italy. Her visit to Rome, therefore, is not only a stop on a political […]

“The infidels sprang up on the slopes with their divisions like storm clouds, covered in a blue metal … it was as if a torrent of black pitch was pouring down, choking and burning everything in its path”.This is how the Turkish chronicler Mehmed Silahdar described the charge of the Polish knights that broke the […]

“Rewarding an aggressor has never brought peace, it only makes bullying more profitable than compliance. Those who profess to be neutral in this situation are simply on the side of those who use force to get what they are not entitled to’. Oleksandra Matviichuk, founder and leader of the Centre for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian […]

When a book bears a strong, almost brutal title like Who Killed Politics, it inevitably captures the attention. The question almost seems to come out of a courtroom or a judicial investigation, and in fact this is precisely the spirit that runs through Emanuele Cristelli‘s book: recounting the decline of Italian politics as if it […]

Carmelo Palma ‘s polemic against Matteo Salvini, reported in the tweet at the top of this article, offers an opportunity to recall a controversial figure in European history: Marcel Déat, a French politician who, from being a ‘pacifist’ socialist in the 1930s, ended up leading a collaborationist party in the service of the Nazi regime […]

Carmelo Palma ‘s polemic against Matteo Salvini, reported in the tweet below, offers an opportunity to recall a controversial figure in European history: Marcel Déat, a French politician who, from being a ‘pacifist’ socialist in the 1930s, ended up leading a collaborationist party in the service of the Nazi regime under German occupation. A path […]

When Vladimir Putin presented Donald Trump with the conditions for peace in Ukraine, he did not merely demand the cession of the Donbas. Two clauses revealed the Kremlin’s true obsession: the recognition of the Russian language as official in Ukraine and the guarantee of protection for the Russian Orthodox Church. Two demands that do not […]

On the night of 7-8 August 2008, Russian troops passed through the Roki tunnel and entered Georgian territory, launching the operation that, in five days of war, consolidated the Russian military presence in the secessionist regions of Abkhazia (Apkhazeti) and South Ossetia (Samachablo), later recognised by Moscow and a limited number of allied countries.According to […]

It must be realistically acknowledged that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict replicates and consolidates in the Italian public debate the same logical and moral patterns that for several decades have made the political question of former Mandate Palestine not only unresolved, but unsolvable. The force of a fait accompli I say irresolvable, of course, on a principled […]

The Eastern Roman Empire did not survive more than 900 years by a whim of fate.It had its instruction manuals on how to behave in times of danger, born out of the field experience of great leaders and statesmen like Mauritius or Nicephorus II. And the first rule was: never get involved in a confrontation […]

The tone of the controversy and disputes surrounding Valery Gergiev’s ‘forbidden’ concert in Caserta and then Alexander Romanovsky’s one in Bologna puts on spotlight two completely different trends. The first is the scandalism of Moscow’s pranksters, ready to qualify as ‘Russophobic discrimination’ (whatever it means) the ban on Kremlin agents trying to export the narratives […]

Francesca Albanese is back in the news. The UN rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian Territories has accused Maurizio Molinari, editor-in-chief of La Repubblica, of conducting “biased and irresponsible” reporting, insinuating that the newspaper favours a pro-Israeli narrative. A frontal attack that goes beyond journalistic criticism to take on the features of a personal […]

At a crucial moment for international balances, the experience and analysis of Claudio Pagliara, journalist and author of the book ‘The Emperor. Donald Trump, the dawn of a new era‘, offers a valuable insight into the tensions between the United States, China and Taiwan. In the course of the interview, Pagliara addresses the hottest topics […]

The notes of the Salve Regina, accompanied by the organ, soared towards the dizzying Gothic arches of Canterbury Cathedral on the evening of 7 July.It is rare to see a Catholic liturgy celebrated in the landmark building of the Anglican Reformation, but this time it was worth of it. Taking advantage of the Jubilee, in […]

The crown of twelve stars is first described in one of the visions of Revelation, the book that concludes the Christian Bible by revealing what should happen at the end of time.It is worn by a woman “clothed with the sun” and “with the moon under her feet”, who gives birth to a child “destined […]

At a time when liberal democracies are under pressure, caught between the growing assertiveness of authoritarian regimes and the crisis of the multilateral order, foreign policy cannot be reduced to parade slogans or identity totems. Instead, it is the test of a country’s credibility on the international scene, of the maturity of its ruling class […]

My father used to tell us The Lord of the Rings in episodes during mountain hikes. It was the summer of my eight or nine years of age when he was reading Tolkien‘s epic masterpiece for the first time. So, whenever he had finished enough chapters and felt that he had learnt enough stuff, he […]

“What should Europe do to help end the conflict in Ukraine? Keep in mind that most Russians are tired of this war. Then pressure Russia with sanctions and support Ukraine in every possible way: military, political, economic. To help Russia, first of all, it is essential to prevent Putin from winning the war‘. Oleg Orlov, […]

Altiero Spinelli is one of the founding fathers of Europe whose thought is not fully known, sometimes somewhat simplistically reduced only to the period of his confinement in Ventotene or his youthful communist and anti-fascist militancy. But Spinelli’s political life was a complex epic, made up of contrasts, insights and loneliness. Recounting this compelling web […]

In recent months, videos have gone viral on the web of men in military uniforms forcibly seizing Ukrainian civilians, seizing them during a concert or on a dog walk. Other videos showed women protesting against the forced conscription of their family members. On the social media controlled by the Kremlin or its allies, such as […]

Russia is reinforcing its military garrisons on its western borders, starting with those with Finland, thus following up on the threats formulated in the aftermath of the Scandinavian country’s decision to abandon its proverbial state of neutrality and join NATO.But also confirming that the ferocious invasion of Ukraine is not just an episode of historical […]

In 380, the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its official religion. Just thirty years later, the old capital, Rome, fell into the hands of the barbarians.The event was a shock. The Christians, now accustomed to trusting in the empire and its protection, cried out for the imminent end of the world.The heathens, still numerous among […]

“In the catastrophes and monstrosities of the century, pacifism has tragically weighed in for the benefit of dictators and at the cost of the oppressed; for the benefit of militarist totalitarian states and against democracies to be rearmed; it has been an influential psychological factor in the politics of Munich, and in the aversion to […]

Pope Leo XIV’s message to the Chief Rabbi of Rome reopens a season of hope and shared responsibility among the faiths of the West The message sent by the newly elected Pope Leo XIV to the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, is a gesture loaded with symbolic and political significance, which deserves to […]

110 years ago, in the heat of the campaign in favour of entering the war, Benedetto Croce was forced to write elegant articles in which he tried to explain that his ‘Germanophilia’ was a sincere veneration of German civilisation, not an endorsement of the political line of the Kaiser and his government. How to blame […]

For far too many of our friends who take an interest in the Middle East conflict, Netanyahu and his crimes are blatantly a mere pretext to unleash hatred towards Israel and the Jews, who have committed the unforgivable sin of having their own free and independent country to live in peace, as any of us […]

In 2010, now fifteen years ago, the then President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Gianfranco Fini proposed that the children of immigrants could apply for citizenship at the end of a school cycle, without having to wait until they turn eighteen (from which, moreover, a few more years often pass before citizenship is actually […]

These days, Vladimir Putin proclaimed a ceasefire to coincide with the Victory Parade on 9 May. A moment of celebration and remembrance for the Russian people, recalling the defeat of Nazi Germany. But how much is there really to celebrate for Russian citizens? Nothing, today the reality is increasingly blurred. The Russian Federation, with its […]

25 April, the anniversary of the Liberation from Nazi-Fascism, has always been a symbolic and founding anniversary of the Italian Republic. But what happened this year in various cities – from Milan to Rome, from Turin to Trieste – calls for a deeper reflection: to whom does anti-fascism belong today? And, above all, who sets […]

In Manzoni’s The Betrothed there is a character towards whom I feel a particular solidarity: don Ferrante, the Milanese scholar who hosts Lucia for some time before the arrival of the plague.Owner of a rich library and versed in the natural sciences (as they were understood before Galileo), when the epidemic breaks out don Ferrante […]

Last summer I took a trip to the Baltic with my wife. That cold, shallow, salty sea, which recently became a battlefield for the Russian hybrid war, bathes an area rich in tradition and history. A history with often tragic contours, like that of the whole of Europe. During the Second World War, the Nazis […]

In Cervantes’ famous novel, Don Quixote was an impoverished little nobleman who, influenced by too much reading, claimed to live as if he had been a knight of ancient times. “To right all manner of wrongs, and expose himself to all manner of dangers in order to lead himself to a glorious end” was his […]

From this old continent, tired but still capable of dreaming, I write to you, Mr Trump. I write them as a European, as a son of a land that has known blood and beauty, ruins and cathedrals, despair and art. I write to you with the voice of one who, over time, has learned to […]

The best response to Giorgia Meloni ‘s blunders on the Ventotene Manifesto was undoubtedly given by Roberto Benigni last night on Rai1. This is not why we must abandon ourselves to the usual pro-European self-referentiality, we must respond with facts. In the Chamber, during the communications in view of the forthcoming European Council, we witnessed […]

Does only the West know history? Obviously not. But it is curious that ministerial officials, in preparing new guidelines for primary and secondary schools, felt the need to recover this phrase by Marc Bloch (a scholar who died in 1944, when the gap between the West and the rest of the world was quite different […]

On 7 March 1936, eighty-nine years ago, Nazi Germany sent twenty thousand soldiers into the Rhineland, openly violating the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Locarno. It was a test for Europe. France and the United Kingdom, then militarily superior to Germany, could have reacted and nipped Hitler’s expansionist aims in the bud. They […]

If Galileo had been born in Lapland, he would have been a reindeer herder and not the father of the experimental method, in spite of all his talent. I think any reasonable person would agree with that. Yet if we were to take the next step and ask ourselves how the constellation of Italian states […]

Like every 27 January, this year again there is no shortage of voices expressing compassion, indignation, horror and mourning in memory of the dead caused by the Shoah from 1933 to 1945. Voices outraged, moved, ethically touched; coming from the most authoritative intellectuals and politicians largely idols of the moralising salons of the European left. […]

On 20 January, Joe Biden’s presidential term will officially come to an end, bringing to a close an eternal political career that began in 1970 as a New Castle County councillor, but began nationally two years later with his election as senator from Delaware in an election that seemed already lost, with Biden having to […]

‘Rome caput mundi‘: this is how Marcus Anneus Lucan in his Bellum civile celebrated the eternity and power of the city, capital of the West and cultural and political heart of the continent. Precisely today, as Rome once again shines in the international spotlight with the Jubilee 2025, it is fitting to remember the man […]

The old ‘Europeanism ‘ and the old ‘sovereignism’ have in common a fear of risk and the belief that Europeans have nothing more to give to humanity. They are wrong. For years, the rhetoric of the ‘Europeanists’ (among whom I include myself) extolled the extraordinary possibilities that the countries of old Europe would have if […]

The turning point of democracy On the afternoon of January 3, 1925, the chamber of Montecitorio was a crucible of tension and expectation. The sight of a scowling Mussolini entering the chamber amidst the applause of his supporters foreshadowed a historic turning point, one of those days that mark the boundary between eras. Antonio Scurati, […]

The thirty-ninth American President and Nobel Peace Prize winner James Earl Carter, known as Jimmy, who held office from 1976 to 1980, when he left the White House defeated by Ronald Reagan, died in the evening of 29 December, at the age of 100, after a single presidential term considered by many to have fallen […]

For essayist Samuel Fitoussi, wokism is based on the same logic as the old anti-Semitism. The idea is the following: if some groups succeed better than others, it is because of a privilege they enjoy and a wrong they would inflict on others. The success of a community would thus not only be an injustice […]

This article offers an alternative perspective to the one published on December 21 in L’Europeista titled: “The Double Standard Between Ukraine and Israel: A European Syndrome” (by Vincenzo D’Arienzo). It is written with no polemical intent, aiming to foster constructive debate on such a complex issue while showcasing the variety and richness of opinions within […]

It was only a matter of time, sooner or later it had to happen: the first anti-Islamic attack in Europe. An act of terrorism against Islam, born not from faith, nor from its rejection, but from hatred of religion. The Magdeburg Christmas market bomber now has a name: Taleb Al Abdulmohsen. A Saudi doctor, 50 […]

Introduction: a context of asymmetry in the global debate In the contemporary geopolitical landscape, narratives emerge that seem to apply double standards when it comes to the right to defence of states involved in existential conflicts.Ukraine, invaded and attacked by Russia, receives widespread international support, justified by the principle of the right to resistance against […]

With Antonio Megalizzi I had a personal and very direct dialogue. At the end of 2017, I had spent several weeks trying to convince him to run in the 2018 general election, the first in which sovereignist sentiments and the populist wave were sweeping through Italian public opinion with violence and vigour. Antonio, with his […]

In the age of rampant disinformation, understanding how truth, populism and artificial intelligence intertwine in the global landscape is no longer just a theoretical question, but an urgent and crucial necessity. Yuval Noah Harari, one of the most incisive and visionary intellectuals of our time – author of bestsellers such as Sapiens, Homo Deum and […]

Giuseppe Garibaldi, one of the most famous protagonists of the Italian Risorgimento, is often remembered for his heroic deeds that led to the unification of Italy. However, his political vision and commitment was not limited to the Italian peninsula. Garibaldi was a true pro-European, driven by an ideal of unity and solidarity that went beyond […]

On 30 November 1874, Winston Churchill was born, an iconic and controversial figure in 20th century politics and history. In an era marked by global conflicts and geopolitical transformations, Churchill established himself as the symbol of resistance against Nazism, a man capable of mobilising a nation with the power of words and leadership. Yet, 150 […]

‘Imagine all the people…’ is about to be archived. The iconic song of John Lennon and an era of high hopes, of youth movements, of contestation to wars – Vietnam and all those that followed, up to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine – has now lost its meaning. Now the cradle of Asian […]

Every great project is born from the intersection of roots and horizons. The roots are what keep us anchored to history; the horizons are the dreams, the impetus that drives us forward. For L’Europeista, we have chosen twelve names, twelve figures who, like milestones, mark the path of a Europe in search of itself. Some […]

Building cathedrals is one of the most profound gestures that human beings have ever conceived. Every stone, every arch, every rose window is not just a work of genius: it is a thought, a philosophical act, a mark left in time to defy oblivion. Of all of them, Notre-Dame de Paris is perhaps the most […]