What kind of world will we live in ? This is the question we are grappling with this autumn. The energy crisis, anticipated at the European level for several months already, is reaching our national public spaces with energy prices that are reaching new heights, calling into question the Western development model and raising fears that the democratic consensus of our societies, already weakened for years, will crack. The rise of the extreme right, in Europe and elsewhere, which new revelations show is being fed by Russian capital, is par-t of this democratic fracture. In our last issue we spoke with great hope about the avenir of Europe. With the conclusion of the Conference on the Future of Europe, it seemed clear and open, but this autumn the sky is cloudy and we anticipated, at the time of writing, the arrival in power of neo-fascists in Roma. What is the future of European federalism if one of the main engines of federal integration, Italy, is led by a right-wing coalition ?
In this issue, we try to take a step back, to try to see beyond the short term, to feel the evolutions of society, of the public space ; these are common threads throughout our different issues.
Fortunately, the Fédé’femmes gives us strength and vigour in our militancy thanks to the example of Luisa Villani Usellini who, during the Resistance, defended and supported the idea of European and World federalism by saying "Utopia ? All the achievements of history, before they existed, were called ‘utopias’".
So we can take comfort from the founders of militant federalism by reading Ernesto Rossi’s book, recently published in French by Presse Fédéraliste : L’Europe de demain et autres textes fédéralistes 1945-1948). Antonella Braga, who compiled the texts and provided introduction, commentary and notes, offers us an interview to remind how these pioneers continue to whisper to us the way forward and give us the strength to persevere.
In a world in precarious balance, whose transition remains necessary, the ideals of institutional federalism are, for us, a compass and a means of action in the real world.