Fabrizio Tassinari

An informal European council takes place tomorrow in Copenhagen, while Denmark is under an unusual amount of pressure from the west (Trump, Greenland) and from the east (drones). Why?
My column in Il riformista this morning.

The great @nilsgilman.bsky.social of the equally great @berggruen.org published an insightful comment to the Le Monde profile, outlining the broader intellectual implications of what we are doing in Florence. Well worth a read:

open.substack.com/pub/nilsgilm...

Wonderful gift from @lemonde.fr
for such thoughtful profile of our Florence School of Transnational Governance @eui-stg.bsky.social

Always a special feeling to co-author with a philosopher. Over at @projectsyndicate.bsky.social I partner with the great @daniel-innerarity.bsky.social on digital technocracy and future-less autocracies.

www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...

Albania has appointed an AI bot as minister, showing how digital technocracy is hollowing out democracy. My editorial with the great @daniel-innerarity.bsky.social. For Il Riformista this morning.

Sunset jog after the storm in Florence. Beat that.

Last weekend, the Wizard of the Kremlin premiered at the Venice film festival with young Putin played by Jude Law.

I loved the novel but I wonder why we are so captivated by brutal figures and I worry that works like the Wizard help cultivate their myth.
My column in Il Riformista

It was bound to happen sooner or later… my interview on Alexander Stubb’s worldview, diplomacy and on our friendship. In Il Riformista this morning.

www.ilriformista.it/la-sorpresa-...

Love this article...
Europe without a contrast is disparate, a family constantly at each other’s throats, but with Trump to reflect on, it realizes what bonds it and even in the aftermath of Putin’s best laid Brexit, even the UK speaks as one with its brothers and sisters.

Donald Trump is becoming the greatest unifier of Europe since the end of the cold war | Fabrizio Tassinari The US president may be helping Putin to destroy the west, but his vanity is causing Europeans to speak with one voice in defence of Ukraine, says Fabrizio Tassinari of the European University Institu...

Irrespective of its outcome, the Washington summit showed that Europe still needs the “Other” to shape its identity. My (debut) take in The Guardian.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Donald Trump is becoming the greatest unifier of Europe since the end of the cold war | Fabrizio Tassinari The US president may be helping Putin to destroy the west, but his vanity is causing Europeans to speak with one voice in defence of Ukraine, says Fabrizio Tassinari of the European University Institute in Florence

Donald Trump is becoming the greatest unifier of Europe since the end of the cold war | Fabrizio Tassinari

Europe’s Hogwarts has a new Dumbledore Patrizia Nanz is trying to make the European University Institute relevant

Good to see a piece about the EUI in The Economist. But this is a hatched job, with little resemblance to reality. Charlemagne is usually excellent, so this is odd. Can only think that @spignal.bsky.social talked to people who don't really know what's going on.
www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

EU top court toughens migration rules on ‘safe countries’ Italy’s Giorgia Meloni must justify why nations are deemed safe and allow legal challenges to that decision, says ECJ

EU top court toughens migration rules on ‘safe countries’ https://on.ft.com/44XJvw7

Shopping when in Rome…

Italy just cancelled a concert by conductor and Putin ally Valery Gergiev. Yet last year alone, it issued over 150.000 visas to Russian tourists.

This morning for Il Riformista on the paradox of Italy’s attitudes toward Russia.

Andrea Bajani in corsa per il Premio Strega con "L'anniversario": se ogni famiglia è felice a modo suo La recensione de L’Anniversario, il breve racconto di Andrea Bajani candidato al Premio Strega. Ogni famiglia oggi è felice a modo suo

I am neither a literary critic nor a fortune teller, but a couple of months ago I reviewed for my newspaper the novel that yesterday won Italy’s most important literary award, the Strega prize. Well worth reading (the novel).

www.ilriformista.it/andrea-bajan...

Italy: Government approves 500,000 work visas over next three years The Italian government has approved the legal entry of an additional 500,000 migrant workers for the three-year period 2026-2028. An increase on the current period. Between 2023-2025, it authorized 4...

The Italian government decided to issue 500,000 permits for migrant workers for the period 2026–2028.

This is slightly higher than 450,000 in the current period and significantly higher than the annual ≈70,000 permits per year under previous governments.

www.infomigrants.net/en/post/6550...

An Onion front page with the headline: Congress, Now More Than Ever, Our Nation Needs Your Cowardice Who will stand up for our democracy? This question, fraught in even the most peaceful times, has only grown more pressing as our country approaches its 250th anniversary. Each passing day brings growing assaults on essential liberties like freedom of speech and due process. Meanwhile, our delicately assembled legal system faces a constant barrage of threats. Even as this issue reaches publication, the U.S. military has been deployed against peaceful protesters. We teeter on the brink of collapse into an authoritarian state. That is why, today, The Onion calls upon our lawmakers to sit back and do absolutely nothing. Members of Congress, now more than ever, our nation desperately needs your cowardice. Our republic is a birthright, an exceedingly rare treasure passed down from generation to generation of Americans. It was gained through hard years of bloody resistance and can too easily be lost. Our Founding Fathers, in their abundant wisdom, understood that all it would take was men and women of little courage sitting in the corridors of power and taking zero action as this precious inheritance was stripped away—and that is where we have finally arrived. Now is not the time for bravery or valor! This is the time for protecting your own hide and lining your pocket. Now is not the time for listening to your idiotic constituents drone on about what’s happening to their precious democracy. This is the time for getting down on all fours and grov- eling. Now is not the time to say, “Enough is enough,” and have the tough conversations about resisting the ongoing assaults on American liberty. This is the time to let the wave of apathy and indifference roll over you as you think about getting a really nice renovation to your house in Kalorama. But what can I, one coward, do alone? you might ask.

Donald Trump just unilaterally bombed Iran. A masked gang is terrorizing our streets. America has rapidly devolved into an authoritarian state.

That's why, today, The Onion has purchased a full page ad in today's New York Times with a simple plea to Congress:

Sit back and do absolutely nothing.

“How inclusive, really, is this widely accepted fantasy of a country perpetually frozen in the 1950s, that foreigners and Italians alike consume with such gusto?”

Good news is no news, but the USIP website back online is definitely something to celebrate.
2 cheers for the rule of law and peace research. ✊

Ukraine stages audacious attack on airfields deep in Russian territory Strikes come as Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will send delegation to Turkey for peace talks this week

Shall henceforth be known as Pearl Harbor with a cause.

on.ft.com/3FIxDnM Ukraine stages audacious attack on airfields deep in Russian territory

For Ukraine it was the month of the Leopard: everything changed in order for things to remain tragically the same.
My frontpage editorial on il riformista this morning

Trump plans to impose 50% tariff on EU imports from next month US president accuses bloc of taking advantage of US on trade

Wished someone in Europe said enough with flooding the zone, rather than falling over each other to please him.

on.ft.com/4jhKtr0

How to be a great thinker Seven habits of highly intelligent people

As someone who is worried about our capacity for deep thinking in times of screens and social media, and started writing about this recently, I just love this piece by @simonkuper.bsky.social on habits of great thinkers!

This all applies to writing as well. Do read it. 👇

on.ft.com/43s9t8T

The Gaza Health Ministry has released a new 1,000-page document with the names, ages and other statistical information of 52,959 Palestinians killed in Gaza.

The first 100 pages (over 5,000 names), the age is listed at 5 years or younger.

The first 18 pages the age is listed as 0 (under 1 year)

I was U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. I resigned because of Trump's foreign policy. | Opinion I served in our country's foreign service for three decades. The Trump administration's Ukraine policy will make the U.S. less safe.

“Unfortunately, the policy since the beginning of the Trump administration has been to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia.”
It must take a lot of guts for a US civil servant these days to resign and then publish this
www.freep.com/story/opinio...

Kremlin Rejects Zelenskyy’s Istanbul Peace Summit Proposal, Calls It “Political Theater” Kremlin dismisses Zelenskyy's invite for direct talks with Putin in Istanbul, labeling it a political spectacle and preferring representatives for negotiations.

Putin rejecting the direct talks that he had proposed is the most pathetic bluff attempt I have seen in a long time.

united24media.com/latest-news/...

New pope breaks with Francis to support Kyiv and ceasefire push Pope Leo XIV calls Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy days after his election as head of Catholic Church

This is remarkable.

New pope breaks with Francis to support Kyiv and ceasefire push.
on.ft.com/4iTUnih

A whole lot of running this month.

This is what courage looks like. Kudos to the team at 60 Minutes.