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If you ever wanted an example of how religion and politics do not go together you only have to refer to what happened this week at the European Parliament. The man at the centre of the storm, the conservative Italian Christian Democrat Rocco Buttiglione was declared unfit to serve as justice and home affairs commissioner by the left and liberal MEPs for holding Catholic views on homosexuality and single mothers.
It was useless for Buttiglione to plead that he believed in freedom and that morality and law did not and should not mix, and that he was not going to impose on others what he considered correct. The majority of the members of the European Parliament did not trust him and pre-empted that Buttiglione was not going to be tolerant towards the beliefs of others. In effect, whereas the right considers the block vote as a vote for intolerance, the liberals and the left considers it as a vote for tolerance. Others blame Herr Schulz, the head of the socialist group, that his move is a continuation of a parliamentary vendetta against Silvio Berlusconi and nothing more.
The anti-Buttiglione team, on the other hand, contends that as a candidate for one of the most important jobs, commissioner for justice and civil liberties, he is entirely unfit for the role because he has prejudices against gay people and women. He had also proved himself, as a member of the Berlusconi government, complicit in widespread non-respect for the rule of law. On asylum the Italian government is breaching the UN refugee convention by deporting migrants without determining whether they qualify as refugees. It held up the agreement on the European arrest warrant, which cuts red tape in getting criminal and terrorist suspects before the courts and Italy is the only country that has not implemented it. And it has passed laws to pervert the Italian justice system and give Berlusconi and others immunity from fraud and corruption charges.
But obviously the main bone of contention was Buttiglione’s unwise move to declare his religious beliefs. This reminded me of when John F Kennedy was campaigning for presidency and his Catholic convictions were also hotly debated. The candidate, in response, acknowledged the need to state “not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me, but what kind of America I believe in”. In the political arena, I cannot understand how one can be a Catholic and a politician at the same time. I have always said this and will repeat it endlessly.
Catholicism is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and as far as I know, Christ told us to love nationalists and socialists alike. Now, can anyone tell me if a nationalist politician can be a good Catholic or how a labourite can be a good Catholic when his party machine is dictating otherwise? You will all recall when Joe Borg, who is in Barroso’s team, evaded the answer when he was asked about his views on abortion. At that moment in time, Borg definitely put politics before religion so that he could secure his post as Commissioner.
Buttiglione tried to put religion before politics and the price he and the EU Commission had to pay is so high that it led to major crises within the Union. The Commission which was supposed to start work tomorrow November 1, has now to wait until Barroso comes with a new formula which is approved by the European Parliament.
However, it is misleading to say that this happened just because of Buttiglione. Barroso, a former leftist and now a neoliberal, included three other candidates as commissioners who did not entice the right-wing members of Parliament. There is the Dutch business woman Neelie Kroes (a liberal), set to take over the powerful portfolio of competition commissioner, showed insufficient grasp of details and raised doubts about her future independence in the post. There is the former Hungarian foreign minister Laszio Kovace, a socialist, who also failed to convince MEPs that he knew enough to become an effective European commissioner for energy; and the third one is the former Latvian parliamentary speaker Ingrida Udre (a eurosceptic green), designated as taxation commissioner, who did not provide enough clarification about past allegations of financial irregularities.
Now the question is what is going to happen next? First of all, the power of MEPs to interrogate and reject EU commissioners only came in with the Nice Treaty, so this has never happened before. Parliament has the power to only reject the entire 24-strong commission and it cannot veto individual commissioners. There will no doubt be heavy lobbying with Mr Berlusconi to nominate someone less openly controversial. There is the fear that the centre-right block of MEPs can start objecting to other commissioners if Berlusconi gives in to the pressure and substitutes Buttiglione and in the meantime, the outgoing commission will stay on in a caretaker role until the problem is resolved.
The issue of Buttiglione has proved once again that religious beliefs have to be kept aside in politics in Brussels. In Malta it is the other way round: the more you say that you have Catholic beliefs the more likely you are to be elected to Parliament. If you want to make it in politics in Malta, joining in the Catholic celebrations is a passport to parliamentary membership. What you do in your political and private life does not come into play. In Brussels and Strasbourg, where the two seats of the European Parliament are held, the culture and the situation is different. There you cannot play with words like Buttiglione did – you say you are a Catholic and at the same time say that you will not let those beliefs intrude upon policy decisions or result in any form of discrimination whatever. You will recall that in the EU Constitution they excluded any reference to Christianity. This is the European Union that our Catholic priests voted for and we shall always be grateful to them for that.
If an EU citizen is to be debarred from public office for holding personal beliefs that are at odds with the prevailing social orthodoxy then I am glad that I did not vote for this European Union. You will recall how many times they told us in the referendum campaign, that the European Union does not interfere in family matters and in sexual orientation. In the Buttiglione case, we have a clear example that this is not true and as time goes by, the more the EU is moving towards a secular union where religion no longer has a place in its constitution and policy decisions. I wonder what our Catholic priests have to say on all this. They will most probably blame it on the socialist or the liberals to try and put their conscience at rest. But you and I know that all this could have been foreseen and there will come a time when the pressure in the European Parliament on Malta will be so great that we will have to succumb and legalize divorce, and eventually abortion. As John F Kennedy said forty-four years ago, “This year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed; in other years it has been - and may someday be again - a Jew, or a Quaker… Today, I may be the victim but tomorrow it may be you - until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped apart.”
The European Members of Parliament who were set to vote against the Commission as proposed by Barroso, including our MEPs if any, have a duty to inform the EU citizens if their decision was purely based on Buttiglione’s convictions or because of other political issues. They must be frank and straight to the point as I am afraid our socialist MEPs when interviewed, did not come up with convincing arguments and never mentioned anything about their likes and dislikes of the Commission proposed by Barroso. On the other hand our Nationalist MEPs must be cautious and it will be wise for them not to mention anything especially regarding homosexuality, when many of their votes came from homosexuals who are depending on them and on the European Union to give them equal rights as of heterosexuals.
Barroso has a tough job to do this week especially if Berlusconi insists on Buttiglione. The application of the Nice Treaty has reminded Barroso that he cannot under-estimate Parliament. The complicated arrangement that he proposed last week whereby he and other commissioners would carry out the fundamental rights part of Buttiglione’s duties did not convince the majority of MEPs as the portfolio is indivisible, especially as counter-terrorism measures threaten civil liberties.
We shall now wait and see for this first application of the Nice Treaty. I wonder what the EU Muslims would have done if they were a majority in the European Union!
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