Where there is no vision, the people perish.– Proverbs 29:18 POLITICAL LEADERSHIP is crucial, desperately needed, but a nebulous concept, difficult to pin down, as elusive to grasp and hold in the hand as water.
Successful leadership is a subjective, dynamic quality that reflects at one time a real oneness with those who are led, and at the same time an ability to stand apart, ahead, to bring them on an uncomfortable journey, and the courage to speak often unpalatable truths. It involves a big-picture vision of the road ahead, and an empathy and a mutual respect in their relationship with the people. Crucially, it also involves an ability and commitment to nurture a willingness to be led.
Where are the leaders now?
Europe has never needed them more. Bold, radical leadership. And not just from France and Germany, but others, Ireland included. The crisis that is seriously undermining both the euro project and the EU’s political unity is now not simply an economic crisis but one of decision-making and leadership. Institutionally and culturally the union appears incapable of conceiving and then making the necessary decisions, unable to rise above the remorseless incrementalism that is now its modus operandi.
In the early years of the EU it was possible, even necessary, to make a virtue of the incremental, functionalist approach to reform. Yet even then there were leaders like Monnet, Schuman, Adenauer, later, even Delors, who were determined to push us beyond where we prepared to go. In more recent years the Kohls and Mitterrands were willing to put Europe before country.
“Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm,” the Roman slave Publilius Syrus wrote of leadership. Too true. The storm has found us wanting.
As Brussels returns from its summer break and embarks on a new series of finger-in-the-dyke meetings the story is of division and confusion. The market contagion is spreading to Italy. Even the limited immediate agenda of measures agreed by leaders in July to deal with the debt crisis appears fraught with political pitfalls – national parliaments must ratify the limited increase in the bailout fund agreed by leaders in July; Finland has prompted others to seek collateral from Greece; Italy has already performed a U-turn on its austerity package; France and Germany have had lukewarm reactions to their joint initiative; the Commission and Parliament are at loggerheads over reinforced governance rules ...
If the limited reforms are so difficult to implement it is scarcely surprising that leaders are unwilling to countenance more radical options like the creation of eurobonds, and that they limit themselves at every new turn of the crisis to the minimum needed to meet the immediate challenge. But they are running out of road. As Mario Draghi, the next president of the European Central Bank, has warned, the debt crisis is entering “a new phase” when half-measures will simply not do. Now is the time for a new leadership to step forward.