Valentina Bertoli April 15, 2022
“The responsibility lies with us. Europe must regain its subjectivity,” Rosy Bindi fearlessly explains to Otto e mezzo, the evening’s daytime program of La7, directed by Lilli Gruber. “We have not been able to protect the buffer states,” the former minister added in the April 15 issue. Kira Rudik, Ukrainian MP in connection with Kyiv, is annoyed: “It hurts to hear the term buffer state. We are fighting to join the European Union”. Frost crashes in the studio. Bindi explains her intentions and apologizes.
Moderator of the talk Otto e mezzo, Bindi, historical leader of the Italian centreleft, is then questioned by Gruber about the possibility of an end to the war in Ukraine. “War is becoming more and more brutal, only weapons speak. Do these weapons bring us closer or do they take us away from a truce?” asked the innkeeper. “Unfortunately, I fear that this constant demand for weapons will lead to the war becoming bloodier and bloodier. Guns do not end the conflict. I know we’re on the right side, but I have doubts about how we’re going to do it. I fear many have good reason not to put an end to these atrocities,” Bindi replied sincerely. “Who doesn’t want to quit?” Gruber then pressed her. “Everything. There are those who take advantage of these massacres. Diplomacy doesn’t work hard enough.”
Kira Rudik, Ukrainian MP and leader of the Golos party, then intervened and asked the moderator: “What guarantees do we Ukrainians have? How do we know that Putin will honor his commitments? We ask for guns to protect us. Rapes, murders, atrocities. What kind of deal can be made with the perpetrators of such horrors? Putin wants to wipe us off the face of the earth and the Russians call us dirt.” Lilli Gruber then wanted to examine what role Europe has in overcoming the war between Russia and Ukraine: “Biden and Putin will have to negotiate. This is the actual game being played. They say that the responsibility for the conflict lies with the Russian aggressor and that, looking back, Europe has its faults too. Which ones?” “I was a member of the European Parliament when the Berlin Wall fell. Some of the hopes we had we were able to achieve. I think we should have avoided feeling like winners in those years To create Russia, we could have chosen an attitude of dialogue and prevented the world from becoming a single power.Europe, in NATO and in the West, should remember that it has its own history, its own path, its own identity. It’s Biden and Putin who need to agree. But Europe has a role to play its part.”
Rosy Bindi continued gruffly: “Is anyone thinking about the organization or are we just limiting ourselves to the arms race? I wish for a European foreign and security policy and for Europe to have its own subjectivity. The buffer states, and Ukraine should have been after 1989, are tricky. We couldn’t protect them. It’s our responsibility.” The Ukrainian Honorable Member’s angry reply was not long in coming: “It really hurts to hear that your country is being defined as a buffer state. We want to be part of the European Union and we are fighting for it. That’s why the war started. Putin did not want the European Union and NATO to expand and recognize Ukraine in the future. Europeans should reduce dependence on Russian gas and oil. Russia can afford war and sanctions. Putin will continue his energy conflict: he will make countries pay in rubles and stop exports. Italian politicians immediately clarified their intentions and apologized: “The doors of the European Union are always open to Ukraine. I am sorry. I used that term to indicate some sort of neutrality, but I would vote for Ukraine to join the European Union.”
