Commentary
With the demise of political Europe, attention turns to rearmament
If the EU wanted to retain some autonomous weight internally and internationally, then it should have decisively countered the black wave of nationalist reaction rising within and which is bringing together Donald Trump's most direct European interlocutors.
Now that the anti-fascist dam in Germany has collapsed in the most infamous manner with the votes of the CDU-CSU joining up with those of the AfD (which, not coincidentally, called it a “historic day”) to demolish a crucial civilizational achievement, the right to asylum, it would be good to take stock of what awaits Europe if German voters fail to put a brake on the resurgence of German nationalism at the end of February – as well as of the magnificent opportunities that would lie ahead for the new masters of American politics.
One didn’t have to wait for Donald Trump to discover the underlying hostility and irritation of the United States toward the European Union, which has grown steadily since the end of the Cold War and even more so with the exit from the Union of its most Atlantic member: the United Kingdom. A rising trend that Biden didn’t buck in the slightest, moreover.
Then, the war in Ukraine ended up weakening Europe, making it impossible to sustain the relationship with the East that is historically and geographically vital to it, and not only for buying cheap energy. For Europe – and especially for Germany, which has been its standard-bearer and main beneficiary – any possibility of an Ostpolitik has come crashing down, with Putin's neo-Czarist impulses being far less tractable than the more predictable Soviet rationalism and the Eastern countries bled dry by the ruthless German hegemony of the post-1989 era.
On the eastern border, the watchword has shifted from trade to NATO, and towards a logic of military power to such a degree as to overpower and distort the very idea of itself that Europe had built up after the end of World War II. The result is increased American blackmail power over the geopolitical and economic choices of a European Union which is now at risk of isolation. To avoid the trap of overly optimistic illusions about the future, one need only think of the failure of the 2020 investment agreement with China.
All Trump is doing is perpetuating, with his own rough style and nationalist edge, an anti-European policy that has been building over time since 1992. After that date, no American president would ever again dream of proclaiming to the world “Ich bin ein Berliner,” as Kennedy did in his famous 1963 speech.
EU institutionalists, hypnotized by the snake that has taken up residence in the White House, are reacting with blandishments and restrained pride, but mostly without realizing that the United States has changed far less than Europe has. Nor do they realize how little the EU can compare to global players like the US, Russia or China, where economic strength is backed by unified political power (even more important than military power).
The Europeans have failed utterly in the process of building a political dimension worthy of the name, replacing it with a cloying and hypocritical appeal to values that no one respects anymore. One need only recall the attitude towards the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Or the cumbersome and weak infringement procedures against rulebreakers who are evading the rule of law. The notion of compensating and replacing the absence of a political Europe with European rearmament has been as illusory as it is dangerous.
It wasn’t just Brexit: a large number of European countries are now governed directly or heavily influenced by nationalist forces. The old nationalist and Eurosceptic core in the East formed by Hungary, Slovakia and Czechia (with Poland having moved to the liberal camp for the time being, but without a very big swing) is now joined by the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria and, of course, Italy. In France, and especially in Germany, the weight of the far right has grown enormously, to the point where the previous rejection by the centrist parties – primarily the CDU-CSU, which belong to the European People's Party – of any form of collaboration with the far right has fallen by the wayside.
The expansion of radical right-wingers in many countries of the Old Continent has also brought a shift from their original principled Euroscepticism to the ambition to build a European policy summarized in the contradictory formula of an “Europe of nations,” on xenophobic and authoritarian ideological foundations. It is quite clear that this approach intends to empty out European policy of any positive content of democracy and social solidarity (left entirely at the mercy of nation-states, where such mercy is in short supply), but most importantly, it gives a green light to the practice of bilateral relations. The United States would have the run of the board when dealing with a Europe that is ideologically close to it and politically divided into individual nations, each seeking favors, advantages and positions of privilege, often in conflict with each other.
This bleak picture points to a rather clear but entirely unfulfilled political prescription: if the European Union wanted to retain some autonomous weight in its internal economic and social choices and on the international stage, then it should have decisively countered the black wave of nationalist reaction rising within and which is bringing together Donald Trump's most direct European interlocutors.
Practically the opposite has happened, with the rightward slide that the Ursula von der Leyen-led Commission set in motion and that Friedrich Merz's CDU is bringing to fruition today by rehabilitating the ultra-right; same with the French governments, in power only by the good graces of the National Rally, or the competition/complicity of the German Christian Democrats with the xenophobic nationalism of the AfD. Not surprisingly, the latter party enjoys the enthusiastic support of Elon Musk, who didn’t miss the fact that Germany is where the most decisive game is being played.
Democratic Europeanism should have unwaveringly prepared itself for this internal conflict – while having to bear the brunt of the damage inflicted on European society by the ordoliberal and financialized Europeanism with which it has often commingled and compromised. Otherwise, the “preparation for war” of the Old Continent, as trumpeted by Commission Vice-President Kaja Kallas, will prevail, occupying the space left empty by the demise of political Europe – and probably of democratic Europe as well – with rearmament and the emotional overtones surrounding it. All accompanied by the enthusiastic applause of the far right and its American sponsors.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/leuropa-condannata-a-morte-dal-veleno-americano on 2025-01-30