Italian ‘Independence’ Movement Sends Powerful Message to the Government

“Italy wake up!” is the message sent out from the event devoted to the BRICS and the New Silk Road, organized by the newly created “Independence” political movement in Italy January 18. Before a packed room at the Rome Chamber of Commerce, international guests invited by the movement’s foreign policy speaker Michele Geraci, offered a comprehensive picture of why it is in the national interest to stop supporting NATO wars and rather build a bridge between Europe and the BRICS/Belt and Road Initiative.

Other speakers included: Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University; Marcos Prado Troyjo, New Development Bank President 2020-2023 and former Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of Brazil; Professor Zhang Yanyu, Political Counselor of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Italy; Marco Carnelos, former Italian Ambassador to Iraq and Government Diplomatic Advisor; Gianni Alemanno, National Secretary of the “Independence!” Movement. Representatives of the U.S. and the Russian embassies were among the participants.

In his conclusions, Indipendenza National Secretary Gianni Alemanno exposed the fact that the political debate in the country has ignored the BRICS, as if they did not exist. He pointed to the connection between the piecemeal Third World War now ongoing, as the Pope noted, while Europe is in a global recession, and we have a war in the Middle East.

Meanwhile the BRICS reality is becoming stronger and expanding. However, Alemanno explained, it is not a new hegemonic bloc. What is fascinating about them is that they are not a uniform reality, and don’t promoted a single model to be exported. The Chinese, Indian, Russia, Brazilian models are all different, he noted, so much so that their capacity to make different choices, respectful of sovereignty and diversity, is their banner.

The new Indipendenza movement has formulated, with Michele Geraci, four proposals, which the National Secretary went through:

* Reopen the Silk Road question. The New Silk Road is not a matter of free market, but of projects to examine and implement case by case. Reopening the issue is the first step to demonstrate the capability to be a bridge to the BRICS.

* Lift sanctions on Russia. They have been a boomerang and lifting them means “we do ourselves a favor”. In the longer term, he proposed to continue the process started by Italy at the 2002 G7, to which Russia was invited and the G7 became the G8.

* Become a shareholder of the New Development Bank. Who do you think will rebuild Ukraine after the war, or rebuild Africa?, he asked. Not the IMF or the World Bank, but the NDB and the BRI bank.

* Direct our marketing and foreign policies towards the BRICS.