History often takes on unthinkable ways of repeating itself. We all believed the political attack as something now outdated, out of date, at least in advanced democracies. And yet, here is history surprising us again and reminding us that it is best not to ignore it. Let us dare to make a comparison. The attack from which Trump miraculously escaped unharmed and bears a striking resemblance to the one in Sarajevo that cost the Archduke his life Franz Ferdinand of Austria in 1914. In that case too, a shot was fired, a young attacker with extremist sympathies and, above all, then too, an international scenario was on fire, poised towards a global war that would soon break out and for which the killing of the heir to the Habsburg throne was the pretext.
Fortunately, Trump was not killed.
Maybe someone would have preferred that the bullet hit the target but that’s not how it went.
In a previous article on the rare space of freedom that is this site we highlighted how the political situation of the contemporary world is tremendously similar to the international context that preceded the First World War.
The discovery Russian violent imperialism; Chinese financial and neo-colonialist expansionism; the war between Israel and Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East; the political chaos in Europe (a Europe that increasingly resembles Austria-Hungary before its collapse with a sprinkling of Soviet-flavored economic planning).
The incandescent American context adds to the disintegration that seems to loom over the world and the historical coincidences, which are never coincidences, multiply.
The attempt to kill Trumpa political leader legitimately chosen by a large part of the electorate of the largest democracy in the world, combined with the threat of Russian missiles aimed at European capitals are the latest pieces of a mosaic that is becoming darker every day.
Butler, Pennsylvania, was narrowly missed as Sarajevo in 1914. But history teaches us that a ruse can emerge from any event, even the most unthinkable, such as an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate.
We walk on the edge of the abyss and every now and then we even stumble.
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