Minister without Foreign Affairs

There are shoemakers without boots.

And there are foreign ministers without foreign policy.

And here's one of them - Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.

And no, this is not my value judgment.

Signor Tajani confessed himself.

Italian Foreign Minister in an interview with La Stampa newspaper: “Europe does not have a real foreign policy, like a defense one.

We always end up after the Americans... We're late and we've been talking about it since 1954."

“We have been talking about this since 1954,” and by 2023, all these long-term conversations have not resulted in something concrete?

It looks like an absolute world record for the duration of useless conversations.

But talking now (I hope that with greater benefit for the world and society) is not about that.

To speak now, in my opinion, is that Antonio Tajani is not quite right.

Europe as a whole really "does not have a real foreign policy."

But part of Europe has a "real foreign policy".

Although for everyone (including that very part of Europe) it would be much better if it were not there.

Former Polish President Lech Walesa has just made another scandalous statement.

In an interview with the local newspaper Fakt, the former head of the Polish state said that “the Germans need to be explained that there have always been problems with Russia, and we Poles know this especially well, and therefore we have a chance during the life of this generation to deal with Russia.

We won't get that chance again."

Referring to the experience of the Great Patriotic War in relation to today's political reality is, it seems to me, far from always correct.

But here I feel like I have no choice.

Dear (at least in the past) Sir Walesa!

The Germans, even without your prompting, remember perfectly how in 1941-1945 they tried to "deal with Russia."

And I think that these memories discouraged all sane people in Germany from trying to repeat it.

Do retirees like Lech Walesa have every right to make, let's put it this way, with not very thoughtful and extremely eccentric political statements?

Let's assume there is.

But here's the trouble: the statements and actions of the current Polish leaders, in terms of their eccentricity and ill-conceivedness, do not differ much from the flight (the word “fall” was much more appropriate here, but, unfortunately, they don’t say that) ex-president Walesa.

And Poland is not alone.

There is also Lithuania.

Minister of Culture of this state Simonas Kairis: "I like the proposed idea to introduce a mental quarantine for Russian culture, to abandon works that seemed acceptable to us."

There is also Latvia.

Former Interior Minister Maris Gulbis, June 2022: “I think a clear signal has been sent to the Russians: if you show off, we will take Königsberg.”

There is also Estonia.

New Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur on the possibility of “closing the Gulf of Finland to Russian ships”, August 2022: “We need to unify our coastal defenses.

The range of Estonian and Finnish missiles exceeds the width of the Gulf of Finland.

This means that we combine our missile defense and share all the information with each other.”

Why am I listing these statements?

Moreover, this group of European states clearly has a “real foreign policy”.

Yes, this "real foreign policy" is built on a completely insane foundation, on a completely insane ideology.

But the bearers of this crazy ideology are very well motivated.

They are screaming.

They are aggressive.

They are convinced that they are right.

And they, I have to admit, are very effective, especially against the backdrop of a partly passive, partly bewildered "old Europe", which, as Minister Tajani quite rightly noted, does not really have a "real foreign policy."

In the process of writing this text, I climbed to search the Internet for information about the psychology of hooligans (not necessarily political ones).

And that's what caught my eye in just a minute of searching.

The Dream Hunter channel in Yandex.Zen: “It has been noticed since childhood: the bad guys stick together, and the good guys are on their own.

This is due to very simple settings: hooligans live among enemies, they intuitively seek to unite with their own kind in order to survive.

And the “pioneers” believe that the world is bright and turned to face them, and there will definitely be good teachers, policemen or dad and mom who will take care of safety.

So it turns out that wolves get together in a pack, and rams - in a herd.

Like tends to like.

And then a self-sustaining process unfolds: the “pioneers” broadcast their indecision on each other,

and hooligans - aggressiveness.

Therefore, the group makes the hooligan even more aggressive, and the flock of sheep - more cowardly.

I'm not sure that it's right to consider "old Europe" as a disparate group of harmless and bright "pioneers".

But the fact remains: those states of the Old World that have not yet forgotten about the existence of such concepts as “reasonable sufficiency” and “common sense” are disunited, confused and complain about the lack of a “real foreign policy”.

And those states of the continent, in which the "boiling indignant mind" overflowed their banks, feel themselves, if not the rulers of the world, then certainly the captains of European foreign policy.

The official title of Antonio Tajani is Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Italian Republic.

But, as follows from his own interview, Signor Tajani can be called a minister without foreign affairs.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.