Why the coronavirus crisis is likely to bring Europe together
Solidarity usually suggests physical proximity: goodwill spreading with hugs and cosy chatter. But when you have a crisis with social distancing as an antidote, is that a barrier to comradeship? Far from it. On social media, videos of Italian flash-mobs singing to their neighbours have been shared, as well as petitions to test NHS staff and footage of the ‘Viva los Medicos’ (long live the doctors) mass shout-outs from Spanish windows. Online solidarity overcomes borders, all the more so during a global pandemic. But Europe, which has been described as the ‘epicentre’ of Covid-19, has its own particular flavour of solidarity. It was the growing outbreak in Italy that really brought attention to coronavirus across the continent.
