There is news that does not change the course of history, but it helps the mood of a day. Carola Rackete, the former Sea Watch captain made heroine of the European radical left for ramming an Italian Guardia di Finanza patrol boat, has finally resigned from the European Parliament. And she did so with the smug tone of someone who truly believes she has accomplished a historic mission.
“My candidacy and mandate were intended to contribute to the renewal of the Die Linke party-a process that is proceeding successfully,” she said with her usual self-assurance. Translated from progressive politicalese: I used the Europarliament as a media megaphone and now I can leave as a winner, even though no one had noticed before.
In the statement from The Left group, which hails her as a kind of “heroine for so many people across Europe,” one reads all the rhetoric that has accompanied her political rise: climate battles, workers’ rights, migrants, migrants, and more migrants. Inevitable is the mention of the EU’s “horrible migration policies,” namely those that – albeit with a thousand contradictions – still try to prevent the Mediterranean from becoming a toll-free highway for illegal immigration.
But back to her. Rackete had become famous for defying the Italian government in 2019, when she decided to dock her boat loaded with migrants in Lampedusa against a ban by Italian authorities, risking the safety of those trying to enforce the law. A gesture that, in a normal country, would have been condemned. In Europe, however, it brought her to Strasbourg among the radical left-wing benches.
Now that she is leaving, with her “collective spirit”-quote verbatim-we hope for at least one thing: that she will not return to the sea with a rudder in one hand and the penal code in the other, ready to defy law enforcement again in the name of a fake humanitarianism that only serves the interests of NGOs and human traffickers.
Let’s be clear: everyone is free to have their own idols. But that Carola Rackete is still being painted as a martyr, when she violated Italian law, disobeyed military orders and endangered lives, is a narrative that deserves to be dismissed. As, finally, does her term as an MEP.
Good luck, Carola. But away from our shores, thank you.
