European Social Forum: A Forum for the Future
The hugely successful Florence European Social Forum showed a new face of politics in Europe.
An elderly man spent his days at the European Social Forum in Florence with his multicoloured umbrella open above his head. It wasn't raining; for most of the time it was bright and cold. But his umbrella carried a message: 'Grazie ai ragazzi' (thanks to the kids). His point, I think, was not so much to celebrate this multilingual, multiethnic gathering. Rather he was acknowledging that this was a gathering of a new kind, with a new vision.