Zepp-LaRouche: ‘The Ghost of Sovereignism Is Once Again Haunting Europe’

July 29—Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche was guest speaker at a July 27 panel on “The Ghost of Sovereignism Is Once Again Haunting Europe,” as part of the three-day “Forum of Italian Independence” that took place in Orvieto, Italy, July 26-28.

On the panel with Zepp-LaRouche were Francesco Toscano, president of Democrazia Sovrana e Popolare, German MP Mathias Moosdorf (AfD), Derzsi Akos, Vice President of the Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement in Romania, and moderator Giuseppe Lauria, from the “Indipendenza!” movement.

In particular, Zepp-LaRouche’s second intervention was very well received, judged by many as the best speech of the panel. Answering a question from the moderator, she described the political and economic crisis in Germany as a consequence of the incompetence of the “Traffic Light” government and their total submission to Anglo-American policies. She described the “lifeboat,” represented by the collaboration with the Global South, and she called for a new classical Renaissance.

The previous day, the conference had opened with a panel featuring Russian Ambassador to Italy Alexey Paramonov and American economist Jeffery Sachs, in a dialogue moderated by economist Michele Geraci, the foreign policy speaker for the Indipendenza! movement.

Summarizing the “mission” of the Forum, Indipendenza! Leader Gianni Alemanno called on sovereignist movements in Europe to unite—not to repeat the mistakes of the past: embracing free-market policies and anti-Islam ideologies.

Italian mainstream media, including RAI News, Il Fatto and Quotidiano Nazionale covered the first day of the conference, focusing on the participation of the Russian ambassador. The next day, Agenparl covered the panel with Zepp-LaRouche.

She explained: "Germany is headed towards an existential collapse, but in that also lies the chance that people wake up. It is not just Germany that is collapsing: You have the transatlantic financial system that is bankrupt, sitting on $2.1 quadrillion unpayable derivative debt, and that is a bubble that can detonate at any moment. However, there is already a lifeboat, and that is the new economic system emerging in the global majority—BRICS, the SCO, the Eurasian Economic Union, ASEAN—all these countries are building an economic bloc.

“The danger is that if NATO puts pressure on countries to decouple, derisk, not only are we headed towards thermonuclear war—because any one of the crises: Ukraine, Israel-Gaza … China-Taiwan, could go into nuclear war in a short period of time.

“So, what is the way out? If we stick to normal party politics, to business as usual, I do not think there is a way out. If we think in terms of a paradigm shift, we are experiencing right now a historic transformation, 500 years of colonialism is ending because of the strength of China, countries of the Global South are now forming a new economic system; this is where economic growth is, countries working with the Belt and Road are growing while Europe is collapsing.

“So, I think that the task before us is that we must make clear and convince the people of Europe that they have to ally with the Global South. Germany is collapsing, but Germany is an exporting nation, and if we said: let us work with the BRICS, let us work with Asia, with the Global South, we could participate in the prosperity which is developing there and create 2, 3 million productive jobs in the Global South…. We could solve the migration issue in the only possible human way, by creating productive jobs there, because the young people of Asia, Africa and Latin America want to stay home, build their country (applause).

“So, I think the biggest challenge is how do we get to the mainstream-influenced people? In East Germany, for instance, they do not believe in the NATO narrative, because they had a different socialization than West Germany. There are very important people all over Germany who are already thinking the way I am thinking now. But we must make clear to the people who read Bild, FAZ every day, that there is a hope.

“I have promoted, since when the Special Military Operation in Ukraine broke out, the idea that we must have a new security and development architecture which must include every single country on the planet, because if we create any kind of fracture that does not include every country, that is a path to war. That is the lesson of the Peace of Westphalia that ended 30 years of religious war in Europe and came to the conclusion that, if you want to have peace, you have to pay attention to the interest of the other.”

Zepp-LaRouche reminded that, on ‍ June 14, Putin proposed a Eurasian security architecture and China's President Xi Jinping has made similar proposals that go very much in the same direction.

“I think we have to conspire, if you want, to put this idea of a new security and development architecture on the table, which includes every single country on the planet. And, because the present constellation of government is so difficult, to put it diplomatically, I have also called for a Council of Reason.” She mentioned the Council of Florence, and the Peace of Westphalia itself as a historical examples of such Councils. Thanks to Cusanus, the breakthrough was made in the Renaissance that the government must have the consent of the governed. "Only if the people agree with what the government is doing, the government is legitimate. This has been lost today, governments are doing what they like.

“It was this invention by Cusanus of the reciprocal relationship between the government and the governed, mediated through the representatives, whereby the individual, for the first time, could participate in the government. And this is why we have absolutely to reject supranational institutions, like the EU, because the EU is a giant bureaucracy, a large amount of people, no transparency, no accountability and the participation of the individual in Italy, in Germany, does not exist.

“I think that this principle of sovereignty needs a broad discussion, on why we need sovereignty; this is an existential question.

“Lastly, I think we need a cultural Renaissance. I heard some speakers yesterday and today saying we need a Greek-Roman-Christian foundation, and I fully agree with that. I would even go a step beyond and say we need a classical Renaissance of the best tradition of Europe (applause): the Greek classics, the contribution of Dante, Petrarca, of the Golden Renaissance in Italy, the German classical period from Bach to Beethoven, from Lessing to Schiller; these are so important ideas and our young people have totally forgotten them. So, we have to revive that and make it real.

“Furthermore, we need a dialogue between the best tradition of Europe and the best tradition of China, India, Africa, Latin America, because only if we understand the other culture, we can discover the beauty of the poetry, of the music, and we start to love these other countries and that is the best medicine against any kind of chauvinism and wrongly understood nationalism (applause).

“I have not heard [European Union head] Ursula von der Leyen, [German Chancellor] Olaf Scholz, [German Foreign Minister]Annalena Baerbock or any of these people, ever speak about any beautiful idea of Europe. That is why they are completely unfit to save Europe at this point (applause).

“We are a minority right now, but we have a vision. I have a vision how the world can be. We are at this point, this close to thermonuclear war and the annihilation of civilization. But we are also this far away from making the jump to create the new world economic order where all countries can live in a win-win situation. Soon it will become apparent that Europe has no chance: We either go with NATO down the road to destruction, or we join the Global Majority towards a beautiful future, and we must make that clear to people.”

The full video of the second day of the three-day forum is available here, and the address with Helga Zepp-LaRouche starts here.