Images from Paradise. Eszter Salgó
possesses a clear public identity (European Commission 2006: 9).
Today federalists have no doubts—we need to reenact the heroic deeds of Europe’s founding fathers, pass all the necessary trials, and complete the original project of cosmogony by giving birth to the United States of Europe. “We need to breathe new life into the sails of the Greater Europe envisaged by its founding fathers. … We also need to dream about this Greater Europe,” said former European Commission president Jacques Delors (2013). José Manuel Durão Barroso, president of the European Commission between 2004 and 2014, presented his plan for palingenesis in his 2012 State of the Union Address (2012b). He put on the mask of the mythical hero and revealed the details of his (impossible) mission called the “Decisive Deal for Europe.” This decisive deal, which was supposed to transform the long-cherished dream into reality, required the creation of a democratic federation of nation-states—the completion of a deep and genuine economic and union, the development of a European public space, and the reconstruction of the European Parliament as the “house of European democracy.” Barroso used the metaphors of the European family to portray the Eurozone, suggesting that integration into the Eurozone accounts for entering the house (whose construction has not been completed) and becoming a member of the intimate European family. He resounded the idea that the accomplishment of the European dream is threatened by the rise and strengthening of nationalist and populist forces ready to destroy what has been built so far, and he set a “with-or-against” battle line for the dream of the United States of Europe with a (feeble) call to action: “We must not allow the populists and the nationalists to set a negative agenda. … I expect all those who call themselves Europeans to stand up and to take the initiative in the debate” (Barroso 2012b). It is not the USE, which is not real, but rather today’s painful reality “that is not realistic” that cannot continue. The European Commission president portrayed his era gloomily in the interest of suggesting that in order to avoid the final doom, a new beginning is necessary; a new community must emerge on the ruins of the old. He implicitly referenced Europe’s founding fathers and the responsibility of their sons and daughters to reenact the moment of creation: “Previous generations have overcome bigger challenges. Now it is for this generation to show they are up to the task” (Barroso 2012b). Barroso’s moralizing, almost religious tone is even more evident when he introduced the metaphor that “we are all in the same boat.” To stress that the sacred cause of federalism demands not just a feeling of togetherness but also unconditional devotion, he reverberated: “When you are on a boat in the middle of the storm, absolute loyalty is the minimum you demand from your fellow crew members.” He made no secret about the authoritarian nature of his salvation doctrine: in the moral community of true Europeans there is no room for nonbelievers; those who are not ready to internalize the sacred dogmas of palingenetic ultra-Europeanism are excluded from the possibility of redemption.
A month later, Viviane Reding, vice-president of the European Commission, further elaborated on Barroso’s heroic plan. Keen to sweep away all doubts, she dedicated a long speech on “Why We Need a United States of Europe Now” (2012). She prompted her audience (students, often portrayed as “young Europeans,” belonging to the “Erasmus generation”) to embark on a collective journey that would (surely) lead them to salvation, the magic land of the United States of Europe. She encouraged them to join the army of European federalists and be ready to wage a war against those who threaten the realization of (true) Europeans’ paradise dream—“populists” and “nationalists.” In an oratory style reminiscent of marketing experts, she seems to have set as her goal the enlightening of her audience about the qualities of her product. She set out to explicate the meaning and origins of the notion of the United States of Europe and to reveal why politicians betrayed the courage of the founding fathers by abandoning the concept for more than two decades, as well as to explain the reasons behind the recent return of United States of Europe to the political agenda.
What was imagined as a moment of redemption (creation of the European Union through the Maastricht Treaty) turned out to be a moment of disillusionment. While the common currency was conceived, no decisions were taken to proceed toward political and fiscal union; an independent European Central Bank was created, but it was not supported by a European economic government and a common budget. As a result of the trauma suffered, the notion of the United States of Europe ceased to be a “symbolic taboo.” Instead of recognizing the need to come to terms with the loss of the loved object, Reding believes that it is time to revive the vision of a United States of Europe and bring it back to the EU agenda. As a key prophet of “palingenetic ultra-Europeanism,” she sticks to its core doctrines: the creation of a new, federal Europe is the only way to avoid impending catastrophe, to opt for life in this critical period of flux. Like Churchill, Reding asserts that if Europe is to be saved from infinite misery, and indeed from ultimate doom, there must be an act of faith on the part of the European family and an act of oblivion against the painful (and shameful) past. The mistake made at Maastricht must be corrected. The love object cannot be renounced; there is a need to demonstrate that nothing is impossible. The EU can have a banking union, a fiscal union, an economic union, and a political union; it can even turn democratic.
In the voyage toward the European Country of Cockaigne, Victor Hugo’s ideal of the United States of Europe should remain Europeans’ compass. Viviane Reding quotes the words of the “democratic pacifist,” saying: “A day will come when … all you nations of the continent will merge, without losing your distinct qualities and your glorious individuality, in a close and higher unity to form a European brotherhood” (2012). She omits to mention, however, that besides couching his vision of a United States of Europe—“Let us be the same Republic, let us be the United States of Europe, let us be the continental federation, let us be European liberty, let us be universal peace!”—Hugo also expressed his belief in an exceptional Europe. As he emphasized, “the torch of Europe, that is to say of civilization, was first borne by Greece, who passed it on to Italy, who handed it on to France” (Hugo 1862/2007: 100). Greece, Italy, and France are portrayed as “divine, illuminating nations of scouts” that have to hand on the torch of life to Europe: “Books must cease to be exclusively French, Italian, German, Spanish, or English, and become European, I say more, human, if they are to correspond to the enlargement of civilization” (Hugo 1862/2007: 364).
For the prophets of palingenetic ultra-Europeanism, Hugo’s quest for European regeneration will be fulfilled by the Erasmus generation. The former vice-president of the European Commission harbors hopes that these students will see the emergence of the United States of Europe; they, as true (i.e., reborn) Europeans, will gain the right to enter the land of Canaan. At the same time, those who refuse to embark on the journey that leads to federal Europe, those who are not courageous enough to face the challenges and participate actively in the project of sacred metamorphosis, according to Reding, behave like “the devil at the sight of holy water” (2012). Ornamenting her discourse with this metaphor serves to add a spiritual dimension to her political agenda. In her imagination, the USE is the totem that sanctifies all those who come into contact with it; citizens who reject its blessing, refuse to take part in the rite of passage, to undergo through a transcendental metamorphosis a spiritual cleansing, a collective rebirth, and resurrection as true Europeans are necessarily those who made a pact with the devil. Implicit in the use of this image is the perceived superiority of federalists in respect to “others”—the holy water’s power overrides the strength of the devil. The USE possesses a sacred dimension: it helps people pass the threshold between profane and holy; it protects citizens against evil and allows for their adhesion to the community of faith. It is as if she asked her audience to make a signal of faith, to dip their fingers in the holy water and make the sign of the cross to indicate their membership in the community of believers, their adherence to the political religion of European federalism. It is as if she asked the Erasmus generation (which symbolizes, for the supranational elite, the “new Europeans”) to confirm their true European identity in a daily plebiscite, to be ready to renew their baptism and feel as though they are reborn Europeans day by day.
The belief that the United States of Europe represents the right dream to fire Europeans’ imagination, the right political religion to believe in, and that this political soteriology should be spread by leaders using a more poetic (heroic) language was confirmed by Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi. Speaking