Hans-Gert Pöttering

Hans-Gert Pöttering visited on October 2 to 4, 2009 the international conference  in memory of Don Luigi Sturzo in Catania, Sicily. He declared:

 

I.

We have come together to commemorate Don Luigi Sturzo, who died fifty years ago on August 8, 1959. To commemorate this early advocate of Christian democracy in Europe best we should reconfirm our own commitment to the idea and reality of European integration.

II.

 Luigi Sturzo was one of the first personalities who understood the concept of totalitarianism. During his years in the United Kingdom – a European country which is unfortunately still sometimes undecided about its commitment to European integration – Sturzo published several studies about totalitarian politics during the 1930s.

Totalitarian rule, either in the name of a racist ideology as in the case of Nazi Germany or in the name of the communist ideology, was executed through the structures of power and terror in a one-party state. Totalitarian rule had three defining features:

• The monopoly of power over state and society.
• The monopoly of power over the economy and all social forces.
• The monopoly of power over the minds and hearts of people.

In Marxist ideology only class struggle was considered to be the trigger of a good, and probably even unavoidable revolution. In Nazi ideology, only racial primacy of the Germans could reflect the “right” laws of history. Violence, both Nazis and communists concluded, was probably necessary and, wherever inevitable, it was considered legitimate. We Christian Democrats have always denied this interpretation of history and such inhuman instruments of politics.  

 

Up to this day it is disputable whether Fascist Italy or Franco’s Spain were also of a totalitarian nature. I am hesitant to follow the simplifying conclusion, which is sometimes proposed, that all right-wing extremist regimes were of the same kind while Soviet communism was somehow the aberration of a well meant idea. I rather prefer the interpretation that distinguishes between on the one hand totalitarianism as a comprehensive pseudo-religion and on the other hand autocratic, authoritarian state-centered regimes as represented in Mussolinis Italy and Francos Spain.

 

Whatever this controversy may tell us: The melody of 1989 was fundamentally different: This time, it was a struggle not for one class against another or a struggle of one race against another. It was a struggle for freedom, driven by the idea of the primacy of rule of law, political pluralism and market economy. It was a struggle for the power of law and not for the power to manipulate law. It was a struggle for the power of diversity and not for the power that limits diversity. It was a struggle for the power of freedom and not for the power to limit freedom. It was the struggle for a new beginning. I wished that Luigi Sturzo would have lived to see this day.

 

III.

Luigi Sturzo was a devout Catholic. If he would still be with us today, he would teach us how to define Europe as a community of Christian values. When he started the social reform movement of the Christian Democrats around Romolo Murri in 1900, this meant a break with traditional positions in the church. Democracy had been under scrutiny and was considered suspicious, if not outright heretic by leading Church members. Don Luigi Sturzo was an advocate of the reconciliation of Catholic faith and pluralistic democracy. Sturzo wanted a stronger commitment of the lay people in God’s church. The Partito Popolare Italiano was founded ninety years ago. To this day, the Christian Democratic movement owes him a lot. His life and commitment makes one wonder why the Holy Spirit sometimes takes so long to reach the corridors of our church. But it is also the sad truth that the successive generations of Don Sturzo across Italy and across Europe have not always lived up to his quest for unity. Whenever we are divided, other political currents gain strength. Looking around Italy and Europe today, I must say: there is room for improvement of the profile of Christian Democracy. 

 

It was, in my opinion, no surprise that Sturzo migrated first to Great Britain and then to the United States. In America he found the freedom that was trampled in Europe in these years by totalitarian and authoritarian barbarians. Like Jean Monnet, he got new inspiration for the future of the old continent in America. Monnet worked in the British Embassy in Washington during the war years. He found inspiration in American federalism for the concept of functional and sectoral economic integration as tool for a new peace framework in Europe.

 

When Sturzo returned from New York to Europe in 1946, he could not acchieve a new position of influence in the Democrazia Cristiana. But as a Life-Time Senator – an honour President Einaudi bestowed upon him – Sturzo had the satisfaction to live through the initial years, the founding years of European integration. The Rome Treaties were signed on March 25, 1957, two and half years before the death of Sturzo. He certainly was very happy about this.

 

IV.

The new beginning of European integration in 1957 was a clear break with Europe’s past. Instead of concepts of balance of power or even dreams of hegemonic politics, the concept of Robert Schuman meant a new beginning: binding the destiny of countries together in order to make enmity impossible and shared sovereignty normal. It is no coincidence that today both Don Luigi Sturzo and Robert Schuman have again been united in the effort of their supporters to become canonized in the Catholic Church. Although it would be misleading to argue that European integration is a Catholic project, it is true that the leading advocates of European integration were Catholics: Alcide de Gasperi and Konrad Adenauer must be mentioned beside Don Luigi Sturzo and Robert Schuman.

 

Today, Europe has become much more secular and libertarian compared to the time of Sturzo. But when we talk of the EU as a community of values, we can sense that this would have meant a lot to Sturzo. Community of values – this is a formula that unites Christians and non-believers in the name of a policy with respect for the dignity of the human being at its heart.

 

While this has always been the trademark of Christian Democrats across Europe, allow me to emphasize with reference to the current situation in Europe: We Christian Democrats were never Communists and we were never Capitalists. We always wanted a Europe with a social face. We always promoted Social Market Economy, that is: freedom with order and solidarity.  This will remain our concept. Especially since the outbreak of the current world economic crisis, people realise around the world that our concept – market economy with a human face – is the right vision for the future of globalization.

 

We want the benefits of the dynamism of the market. The best way of guaranteeing this for us and for others is the appropriate regulation of these markets. I do not participate in the debate whether the outbreak of the current crisis was due to market failure or due to state failure. I am also not happy with simply pointing at the United States although we all know that the crisis originated there. But we need joint solutions because we are all affected if the crisis goes on. Therefore, the expansion of the Group of 8 to a Group of 20 has been a good step forward towards a more inclusive global community. The European Union has been a solid frame and a strong engine to cope with the world economic and financial crisis in a coordinated way. This has been and will remain our contribution to advance a global social market economy. Don Luigi Sturzo would have supported it. More men like Don Sturzo are needed today. But allow me to stress as well that I pay respect to the fine and important work of the Istituto Luigi Sturzo that helps us to this day in paving an enlightened path into our socio-economic and cultural future. 

 

V.

Today’s Europe differs very much from Europe in Don Luigi Sturzo’s lifetime. We have now been living peacefully for more than sixty years, longer than during any time in Europe’s history. Reconciliation among European nations has brought the miracle of the European Union to us. The integration process is not completed yet, but we can be proud of what has become European reality. Today, the main challenge that we are facing is the global projection of our role, our values and our interests.

 

Economically, Europe is a power house. Strategically, we have gone a long way since the beginning of a Common Foreign and Security Policy. As far as our norms and values are concerned, we are still in the process of discovering the world as it is and the expectations we wish to live up to. In my mind two principles are essential for our future course:

• We always need to pursue a policy that supports the dignity of the human being.
• We always need to promote the intercultural and inter-religious dialogue.

 

I sometimes wonder what Don Luigi Sturzo would have told us would he still be living today. I have no doubt that he would be a strong supporter of any policy that supports the dignity of the human. This anthropocentric perspective is not a-religious at all. Our Christian view of man includes the recognition of God as the creator of the earth and all life. It also implies the love and respect for all human beings with whom we share this world.

We would follow Don Luigi Sturzo’s example by recognizing the diversity of Europe today. Our continent may be predominantly Christian or secular. But Jews are living with us as well as Muslims and members of many other religions from all over the world. Today in fact, more Muslims than Jews live in Europe. We Christian Democrats will always defend the right of Israel to exist. But we will always say that the life of a Palestinian has the same value as the life of an Israeli Jew.

 

It is not only because of numbers that I suggest to pay all respect possible to Muslims in Europe. I also want us to engage with Muslim countries all over the world into an inter-cultural dialogue. Muslims can practice their faith across Europe. Whenever this cannot be done in an appropriate way, we should facilitate the construction of decent mosques. But likewise, we need to support Christian minorities in Muslim countries. We need to involve strongly for instance Turkey in this discussion. In Saudi-Arabia where 100 000 of Christians are living as guest workers no Christian church exists at all. This is unacceptable. Christian communities in a Muslim environment should give testimony that tolerance and co-existence can work there as much as in Europe.

 

I recently visited a Maronite-Christian village in Northern Cyprus. Their spirituality and community spirit have impressed me a lot. They have never given up their faith and their conviction in the possibility of peaceful co-existence with the Muslim environment in which they live. Their language and their icons, their prayers and their songs are a matter of hope. We also need to support them in Lebanon and Syria, after all neighbouring countries of the European Union. 

 

The European Union would not be the European Union we Christian Democrats want if we reduced globalisation to an economic and financial affair. We also need to engage in the global dialogue of our values and ideas. Unlike in the 1920s, today we have a good basis for doing so. Our countries are democratic. In the European Union we have a supranational community of law that bonds us. We owe it to Don Luigi Sturzo’s memory and generations of Christian Democrats to project our values and ideas beyond the confined island of our own communities and societies. We honour Don Sturzo and we honour all the Founding Fathers and Mothers of the European Union by promoting our principles of human rights and inter-cultural dialogue as partner of today’s world.