Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1062629
25 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 DECEMBER 2018 OPINION ing points: "End the bank- ing monopolies. Break up the 'too-big-to-fail banks'. Separate regular banking from investment banking. Prohibit taxpayer-funded bank bail-outs"; "Massive hiring increase in the public sector to re-establish public services […]: trains, hospitals, schools, postal services…"; and "Stop the privatisation of public goods such as roads, airports, parking, trains […] Re-nationalise all these vital public services…" Most of this would either violate EU law – if noth- ing else, because it entails massive public spending – and I would say all of it runs directly counter to the general direction in which the EU, as a whole, is cur- rently moving. That direction generally involves more bank bail-outs; more privatisation; more austerity, and – above all – much less investment in social services (on a sepa- rate note, these are concerns shared also by Italy's Eurosc- petic government, and very vocally too). From this perspective, the cause of all the unrest in France – which, by the way seems, to have meanwhile spread to Belgium and other parts in the Europe – may well betray a much broader underlying discontent with the so-called 'European pro- ject' in its entirety… all the more widespread for having been traditionally ignored or sidelined by the mainstream European press. This may account for Point 15 of the yellow manifesto: "Break up media monopolies and end and their interfer- ence in politics. Make media accessible to citizens and guarantee a plurality of opin- ions. End editorial propagan- da". (And there, in a nutshell, is the explanation for the local political media's near- total blackout on the French riots story.) The only reference to any- thing resembling 'corruption', incidentally, takes the form of point 10: "Clampdown on tax evasion by the ultra-rich". You will surely note that it doesn't even specifically im- ply 'political corruption' (still less amount to an entire anti- corruption movement). I find this detail signifi- cant, as it implies that the French – unlike ourselves – have acquired the ability to recognise corruption for what it is, even when it doesn't necessarily involve politi- cians or political parties. This stands in sharp contrast with Maltese activists who claim to be motivated by 'The Panama Papers'… and yet, strangely, are only ever concerned with one small handful of political cases, among the thousands of indications of possible 'tax evasion' on that list. So to come back to that earlier discussion, about a certain 'je ne sais quoi' that the French have, that we don't… I would say part of that 'something' is down to a clarity of vision: an ability to focus on and articulate basic social concerns, that actually unites different grievances into a single, workable cause. In fact – and with serious reservations about the meth- od of engagement – I myself feel far more represented by the 'gilets jaunes' 25 points, than by anything on offer in the local political or activism circuit at the moment. And I would gladly vote for a similar movement locally, if only it actually existed. Would everyone else who was so quick to jump on the yellow bandwagon do the same, however? I somehow doubt it...