Reflections of a stormy petrel

As a matter of fact, I could, but I can't be bothered to look it up now. The Italian Parliament has several times voted in ways that contrasted with Italian national interest but were necessary for European or international reasons. And if what you say were true, there would be no such thing as international aid voted for by parliaments and paid out of taxation; there would never have been a Marshall Plan, and the world as a whole would be considerably poorer and more unstable. You should read your Burke: the job of a representative is not to blindly seek the immediate advantage of his electors at the expense of everyone else, but to seek the best he honestly can see for his nation (any parliamentary representative is an official of the nation as well as of his electors) and for his nation's friends. And beggar-thy-neighbour is never sound politics.