War Russia Ukraine: Europe and the West are holding up. Russia on the corner
That the democratic West held its ground in the first year of the war with a compactness of yesteryear is undoubtedly a fact. That even Europe, divided on practically everything, has found a reason for unity in the Ukrainian war and, in the energy field, a drive towards emancipation and differentiated supply is equally undoubted. Finally, that Russia has been cornered from an unpredictable but also very plausible attitude of the “free world” is undoubtedly a reality.
Having said that, one vulnerability remains: the incapacity for a serious, mature and realistic confrontation with peace. The inability, that is, to find in eight years of war, first, and one year after the unfortunate Russian invasion, now, a political-diplomatic way/plan/path to shelter our time from a (never so close) nuclear catastrophe.
War Russia Ukraine: peace is the real test of democracy
That democracy which, in the face of war, has shown signs of extreme vitality by recognizing and reaffirming the values of freedom, of the self-determination of peoples, of the inviolability of national borders and of respect for international treaties for a common coexistence, it risks showing all its fragility and inadequacy in the face of peace.
The problem is that everyone in the West is proud of the war and sees its consensus grow on the war. A Joe Biden on the ropes within the American Democratic Party he found in the war – which, it is to be imagined, he will last until the threshold of the presidential elections of 2024 to then try to become a champion of peace – the reason for re-nomination. Not to mention Emmanuelle Macron isolated at home, or the same Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni who, since her visit to Kiev, has seen a 5% increase in personal approval in just a few hours.
This is reality. Reality that reveals how every attempt at peace, agreement, solution is – at the moment: see the welcome given in these hours to the timid Chinese peace proposal – criticized, opposed, even, deprecated.
Here is the real test of democracy: not war, which is the increasingly easy, convenient and even discounted option in a world of “enemies”, but peace; that just and lasting solution for an unholy conflict born -never forget- almost ten years ago.
This is the challenge for a West that prides itself on being the “house of democracy” and the “bulwark of freedom”
Subscribe to the newsletter