Happy 2026 to you all!!!

Apart from losing the usual extra weight, we have a lot to do in 2026.

Ambitious but concrete things, in politics, culture and the economy, to build an alternative to an illiberal drift that divides our societies and makes them weaker. First and foremost: team up. Bring together battles that today too often proceed separately, for more rights, more freedom and a sustainable economy, inside and outside institutions. It is no longer enough to defend dissent or denounce disinformation, which is now everywhere. We need to regain a real impact on public decisions, starting to organise ourselves immediately, without waiting for the next elections. Too many choices are being taken away from democratic institutions and captured by enormous economic powers, often fossilised and illiberal. Our greatest strength remains the awareness and mobilisation of citizens.

We are a year and a half away from the elections in Italy and three and a half years away from the European elections. Not too much time to waste. We need to take actiuon in time. 

Not just yet another programme written during endless nights of negotiations and compromise, but the ability to convey enthusiasm and credible prospects for a better life. How? With a simple but little-practised method: a true alliance with those who are already building the future. Streamlined and effective forms of participation, consultation and sharing, in a lively collaboration between politics and civil society.

To restore meaning to the vote. And to counter what we might call the four musketeers of disaster: abstentionism, bad government, nationalist populism, violence. These are different but intertwined problems that feed off each otherand must be addressed together. Those who work on climate change, sustainable industry, zero-pollution cities, new models of consumption and agriculture,shared energy and the circular economy must work together and visibly ally with those who defend the rights of women, minorities and migrants, those who fight for a more effective and inclusive welfare system, respect for the rules and the rejection of the law of the strongest. 

And all this only makes sense within a Europe that stops blocking itself: federal, capable of making decisions, without vetoes, without walls, without wars. Because there is no future within a divided and defenceless nation. Because there is no security or well-being in divided and defenceless “nations”. 

2026 is the year in which this alternative must be built. As in an African fairy tale: while the forest burns, a small hummingbird carries a drop of water in its beak.Alone, it cannot extinguish the fire, but it inspires everyone else to do the same. This time, it is the same for us: we must all bring water to stop the fire burning  our common forest.