Fluidità del soggetto neoliberale e integrazione europea ai tempi del “Rearm Europe”

The construction of the neo-liberal subject based on individual as opposed to collective emancipation accompanied the transition from the ‘Trente Glorieuses’ to the next phase, marked by a clear imbalance between capital and labour. Neoliberalism presented the market as a neutral institution capable of allowing everyone self-realisation through efficiency and wealth maximisation, thus circumventing disagreements about models of ‘just society’ typical of the welfare state. This neutralisation of the need to hegemonise society with a certain vision of the common good in order to subordinate the capitalist economy to the needs of society itself is mirrored by the development of inter-state relations in those years, especially with regard to European integration. The neo-liberal recipe applied to the EU has allowed member states to deepen their integration without the need to converge around a certain model of socio-economic development, given the market’s ability to supersede the central redistributive political power typical of a federal state. The similarity lies in the illusion of integration without the need for hegemony. The supposed fluidity of the individual subject was mirrored by the fluidity of the institutional subject (the EU as a sui generis organization). Since the economic crisis of 2008, both visions have shown their limits, but without any real reversal of perspective. The management of the pandemic crisis, first, and of the war crisis, later, still seem firmly anchored in the “TINA” paradigm of the absence of alternatives and the need for unlimited adaptability of the individual to existing circumstances, over whom Politics has no authority.