Description
Robert MENASSE. L'élargissement. Lagrasse : Verdier, 2023, 600p.
Two brothers, not biological brothers but “blood brothers”, bound together by an oath they took in the Polish underground struggle against the communist regime, go their separate ways after its collapse. One, Mateusz, rises to the highest office and eventually becomes Prime Minister of Poland. The other, Adam, made a career in the European Commission after Poland joined the EU; in Brussels he is responsible for enlargement policy. While preparations for the Western Balkan Conference in Poznan, Poland are in full swing, Adam Mateusz asks for support, but he begins to undermine Albania's application for membership. What was once a deep bond turns into an irreconcilable hostility of European dimensions. The two meet again on a cruise on the SS Skanderbeg organized by the Albanian Prime Minister, to which he invited all the heads of government of the Balkan states, the EU foreign ministers and all representatives of the European Union. What happens then is no longer in their control. The political conflict between the two blood brothers is only the framework within which a multitude of fates are decided, bold plans and great life efforts are put to the test until the showdown occurs on the shaky ground of an Albanian cruise ship.
Two brothers, not biological brothers but “blood brothers”, bound together by an oath they took in the Polish underground struggle against the communist regime, go their separate ways after its collapse. One, Mateusz, rises to the highest office and eventually becomes Prime Minister of Poland. The other, Adam, made a career in the European Commission after Poland joined the EU; in Brussels he is responsible for enlargement policy. While preparations for the Western Balkan Conference in Poznan, Poland are in full swing, Adam Mateusz asks for support, but he begins to undermine Albania's application for membership. What was once a deep bond turns into an irreconcilable hostility of European dimensions. The two meet again on a cruise on the SS Skanderbeg organized by the Albanian Prime Minister, to which he invited all the heads of government of the Balkan states, the EU foreign ministers and all representatives of the European Union. What happens then is no longer in their control. The political conflict between the two blood brothers is only the framework within which a multitude of fates are decided, bold plans and great life efforts are put to the test until the showdown occurs on the shaky ground of an Albanian cruise ship.