A book published in Italy sheds new light on the secret process that led to the formation of the European Union.
With a title meaning "The other Europe",
L'altra Europa by Paolo Rumor (2010, Hobby & Work, Varese, Italy) is an uncommon and interesting book for two reasons: first for the contents, but also for the peculiarity of its sources.
The book arises from the evidence — documents and private confidences — relating to certain specific activities and acquaintances of the author's father, Giacomo, in the period 1943-1962 approximately.
The author (a professional lawyer) and his father Giacomo (1906-1982) belong to an illustrious family of Vicenza, with strong Catholic tradition, which counted eminent personalities: his great-grandfather, he also Giacomo (1858-1931), founder and promoter of the Catholic mutual institutions in the region of Veneto; the cousin of his father, Mariano (1915-1990), a prominent figure in Christian Democracy (shortly DC) from 1945 until his death (he was active in Resistanceand member of the National Liberation Committee; deputy at the Italian Constituent Assembly; several times Minister and President of the Council of Ministers — ie Prime Minister); and finally his father Giacomo himself.
At the heart of the book are the activities which Giacomo Rumor performed — altogether confidentially — around the decade 1943-1953, as a representative or a trustee of the Catholic forces of Resistance during the War, and of the Italian government in the following years. Paolo Rumor reports that he had been informed about that by his father — privately and confidentially — both verbally and reading documents, whose classified nature was such that even towards the end of the 1970s his father recommended not to tell anyone about that matter until the end of the century at least, ie, after the passing of the protagonists of that period. The memories gathered by Paolo Rumor are very relevant both in terms of politics and history, and should not go missing: so from this material, together with Prof. Giorgio Galli's and my own contributions, the book L'altra Europa was born.
In addition to his father's private confidences, the sources of memories are represented by letters and documents (including typewritten pages, sketches, maps, plans, fragments of unknown writing and other) addressed to Giacomo Rumor by Msgr. Giovanni Battista Montini (afterwards Pope Paul VI) in 1943 and in 1961-'62; by Cardinal Francis Spellman in 1961; by French statesman Maurice Schumann around 1950; and other persons non-nameable for reasons of confidentiality. Paolo Rumor could also examine other material of unknown origin, now lost, but dated back to 1962 at least. On the whole, the contents related to two seemingly different subjects: one political-economic; the other historical-archaeological, and in some respects even mythical-legendary.
Giacomo Rumor, who always lived in close contact with his grandfather, graduated in Law at Padua, where, within the circle of the Catholic University Youth, he met Msgr. Montini. During the War he joined Resistance in Provincial Liberation Committee, as a member of DC; after the War he did not continue in politics at national level, but undertook administrative assignments in several local authorities and institutions, both public and private.
In addition to these "official" assignments, however, there was one very particular and confidential. Indicated by the Vatican as persona grata among the leaders of the Catholic world (thanks also to the personal consideration of Msgr. Montini), G. Rumor was commissioned by Alcide De Gasperi— Minister for Foreign Affairs at the time of Parri's Cabinet (21 June to 10 December 1945) — as one of the representatives for European affairs. Between the second half of the 1940s and the early 1950s, G. Rumor often went abroad to meet people who were responsible for the project of the European Union; but these activities were managed in a completely confidential way and outside of the normal democratic processes.
Through the testimony of G. Rumor, in fact, it appears that behind the official apparatuses there would be individuals and organizations working with tools and purposes which transcend those strictly statual, and that the true inspirers of the European Union would not have been those known to history: other people (which not even G. Rumor himself met, apart from Schumann) would have operated in the shadows and provided the impetus mediately. There would have existed and still should exist a secret organization — called the “Structure" — which has been working long on the "Great Work": a project for Europe within a wider geopolitical agenda of "systematization" of Western civilization. Such alleged Structure — true protagonist and promoter of the project of European unification — for its own purposes would also resort to the control of information and to techniques of suggestion and concealment in order to drive the emotions of the people, their expectations, their aspirations; and consequently to make them accept changes which involve national communities. Governments and parliaments would not be aware of this project, except for few transparent and public aspects, remaining for the rest substantially excluded and manipulated as instruments, more or less unaware.
Giovanni Battista Montini (Pope Paul VI) French statesman Maurice Schumann
Even before the end of the War, on initiative of the United States and of the major European countries involved in the conflict, it had been formed a group of experts, later expanded and articulated in various informal study committees (G. Rumor took part in that of internal trade) with the task of studying the legal, economic and social basis on which to form an outline of the European Union. This was according to a geopolitical design which aimed to: a) define a new political, juridical and economic order to prevent the recurrence of international conflicts; b) consolidate and spread throughout the Mediterranean area the liberal market economy and democracy as form of government; c) create a third pole as a political, economic, cultural subject which is able to compete with the United States and with the new emerging Asiatic subjects (Japan, China, India).
Schumann played a major role in this project, although at the time he had not any government assignments (his party was oppositionist), just as G. Rumor, who was not even engaged in political activities. In fact, the building of Europe depended on centers of power other than the official ones and proceeded with his own strength and purpose, which transcended the contingent historical-political situation. As evidence of this, suffice it to say that some of the fellows of the study committees were living in countries still occupied by the Allies or even under the totalitarian regimes of Eastern Europe.
The scheme of the Statute of Council of Europe signed on 1949 — upon which it is grafted the subsequent European plant (drafted by Jean Monnet on behalf of Schumann) — was adapted from a paper called “Act of intent July 20, 1889”, signed by D'Angloise-Boile-Michelini-Kauffmann. The study for the formation and implementation of the European Union was not really new: it had been prepared long ago and had been waiting for favorable conditions for its implementation. Schumann himself, during one of the sessions of the committee which they attended, personally confided to G. Rumor that the aspiration for a "Western geopolitical humanism" had taken concrete form at the time of the Restorationsubsequent to the fall of Napoleon.
Between the Wars some British, French and American intellectual circles began to promote the idea of a united Europe which had as point of reference the prestige and moral authority embodied by a dynasty of ancient nobility. These circles included some intellectuals who adhered to a "European Movement" officially existing since the 1930s, and unofficially long before that. They were called "Priors": they were the first to cultivate the idea of a Federation of States, and this, since the second half of 19th century; but truly the movement claimed to trace its strategy to an extraordinarily distant past, almost mythical.
At the time of G. Rumor their members were mostly French, English and Scottish (apparently Schumann himself joined them). This fact is confirmed in a letter addressed to G. Rumor by Cardinal Spellman in 1961: among other things, there was talk of the organization which had prepared and possessed the documents called "Protocols", allegedly existent since about 1870; there was also talk of the Presidency of the Union and of the possible regency by an illustrious lineage. A certain Plantard was mentioned, and it was made warning to beware of a structure called “Contingent”. In other of Rumor's documents it was described a group of people called "Elders", and it was reported about certain texts called "The Protocols of the Priors" (written, or re-written, around the second half of 19th century) which would present a political agenda for the reorganization of the Western world and which would be used — at least partly — for the setting of the early stages of the Union, at the time of Schumann. It seems certain that, in addition to these protocols, they were released some others — fictitious but plausible — in order to conceal the first: this would be the case of the famous “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion”, written in Russia in the early 1900s. The original Protocols would still be preserved in Great Britain.
Within these intellectual circles the European Union was seen as a commemoration of the supposed original semi-mythical union which was said to have existed at the beginning, in a distant past, before the "global upheaval" which had caused the decline and the dispersion of an advanced urban civilization settled partly in the southern basin of the Mediterranean Sea, partly in the Indian subcontinent as well as in other places. It was as if, through a symbolic process, the pursuit of the project of union was nothing more than the repetition of an antecedent event, with the aim to reproduce a condition existed in the distant past.
This and other circles — of a more or less elitist and esoteric character, which Schumann himself claimed to have played a key role in organizing the initial European Union — would be, however, merely some of the many visible "masks" that the so-called "Structure", accordingly to its secret nature, had shown over the centuries pursuing its goal of driving the political-cultural evolution of the European countries and, in general, of the Western world. Such a Structure would have acted as a guardian and as a catalyst of the idea of European identity and would have worked to preserve and stimulate some significant expressions of it. This would have been done in several ways: by embodying itself in institutions of political, religious, scientific, humanistic nature; by sponsoring cultural activities; by financing and promoting scientific researches through foundations, donations and associations. It would have benefited humanists, scientists and government men such as Sandro Botticelli, Robert Boyle, Robert Fludd, John Locke, Victor Hugo, André Gide, Robert Hooke, Samuel Adams and others, even recently.
The Structure, allegedly still alive, would have assumed different names depending on the place, the culture and the period in which it was to operate, thus remaining essentially indistinguishable from the social-cultural-historical context outside. In addition, the team that formed the inner and elitist part had been handing down convictions, knowledge and traditions quite particular and different from those of the rest of its "external" members (from which the first limited to obtaining useful services). In this way, the Structure would have been able to disguise itself through the prevalent expressions and traditions of the various historical periods, while keeping always intact its own distinctive personality; and such it still would remain.
The Structure would be articulated into three levels: deliberative, advisory and executory. In Rumor's documents there was a complete list of the members belonging to the advisory level of the Structure, which we will discuss later. About the deliberative level — evidently the most secret — nothing is said. Finally, about the executory level some names and circumstances are reported, shedding new light on certain events of the postwar period, such as the murder of Enrico Mattei, which is worth a digression in a future article (Esotericism And Politics: The Mattei Affair).
THIS HUB IS RELATED TO:
- Esotericism and Politics: theMattei's Affair (read after)
- Esotericism and Politics: the Hidden Structure in History (read after)
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