Europe's suicidal instincts

Europe is a giant Titanic. But unlike the infamous ship, which neither saw mortal danger in its path, European Union leaders have voluntarily chosen to set a collision course toward their peculiar iceberg, American President Donald Trump. However, unlike Captain Smith, who went down with his ship from his bridge, Von der Leyen and company act more like the orchestra ready to entertain poor passengers with no future at all.

Europe was hijacked sometime in the second half of the last century by the European Union. It was an easy crime to execute given that the European continent was still divided, with its center and east occupied by communism and at the mercy of Moscow, and that Western Europe was comfortable under the social democratic consensus: welfare for all, increasing freedom and security paid for by the United States.

"Dissent is no longer something that is allowed in the Europe of Brussels."

All was well watered, in addition to good wine, with the awareness of being the cradle of law and respect for human rights. Moreover, Europe was wrapped in the banner of moral superiority and was seen as the universal beacon with which to illuminate the progress of humanity and also with which to measure the acceptability of the present of leaders, regimes and nations.

Europe, needless to say, not only acted with a strong dose of amnesia, denying its most brutal and darkest moments in order to present itself as an idyllic Arcadia of prosperity and freedom, but also with a good dose of cynicism in denying its internal contradictions, such as the existence of dictatorships on its southern flank and the quiet but implacable Franco-German hegemony. Moreover, by clinging to the transatlantic community, E.U. Europe allowed itself the luxury of living in abundance because, as we well know, the bill for its defense was covered by others.

Delusions, paradoxes and real problems

The fall of communism and the disappearance of the USSR could have changed the E.U. landscape to a great extent, but the reality is that the disparity between Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe only led to a policy of tutelage of the latter and deepening the power of the real engine room and helm of the E.U.: Germany. Only 40 years later, today, the nations of the center and east of the continent are beginning to be able to express themselves independently and freely, promoting their own vision that does not always coincide with that of Brussels.

The problem is that for E.U. leaders, the discrepancy of countries like Hungary or Poland is understood as deviations that cannot be tolerated because they question the course that the bloc has set itself on since the 1980s: building a federal superstate, based on uniformity and progressive creed. Namely, radical secularism, indiscriminate immigration, anti-traditionalism, multiculturalism, extreme pacifism and lust for power. Dissent is no longer something that is allowed in the Europe of Brussels.

There is a paradox that should lead people to raise their eyebrows with suspicion: the capital of the E.U., Brussels, is the capital of a country so culturally divided that it may not really exist, so Islamized by the suffocating Muslim immigration that threatens to change the stars on the E.U. flag with crescent moons, and so oblivious to the ups and downs of the world, like a bubble of bureaucrats and technocrats who believe themselves to be the masters of the world.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance stunned all those attending the historic Munich security conference when he warned Europeans of the dangerous liberticidal course on which the E.U. was embarked, thus reneging on Europe's founding principles. But, although he was not without reason, the leaders gathered there were upset that a profound American, a lout in his conception, dared to give them lessons in freedom. How is Europe going to listen to and learn from a barbarian who defends the right to bear arms? How is an American going to understand the sophisticated Machiavellianism of the European elites?

But reality and truth are stubborn. And there is the evidence: from forcing repeated votes and referendums to achieve the approval of the misnamed "European Constitution" in the 1990s, to the pressure for changes of governments in Italy a decade ago, to the sanctions on Hungary and the ostracism of Austria and Poland when their leaders are not sufficiently pro-European.

Not to mention the political and media censorship exercised against all those options that, constitutional and legal in their countries, want to present themselves as populist and extreme right-wing simply because they do not agree with the globalist, anti-family and pro-open borders diatribes of the current E.U. leadership. We experienced this recently with the Romanian elections, and we just saw it this week with the Polish presidential election.

What is really surprising is that the elites ruling the E.U. do not want to realize that their social contract was based on giving citizens prosperity and security. And that both things have been progressively evaporating as a product of a series of crises, true, but also due to their policies. It is not trivial that the majority of crimes against sexual freedom are committed by people of non-European origin, for example. The reality is that Europe is not growing, but crime is growing at an exponential rate.

But in spite of everything, what seems most important for Brussels is still its decarbonization and anti-nuclear delusions in favor of renewable energy whose effectiveness the Spanish and Portuguese have already seen and suffered less than a month ago, with a widespread blackout for hours.

Europe has a serious security problem, with an aggressive Putin in the East; an existential problem because of runaway immigration and expansive Islamist minorities; and also a serious problem of values, first hijacked and then inverted by a socialist and progressive education, which has nurtured generations of young people unwilling to make effort and sacrifice, ignorant of their own history and mostly disinterested in the common good and anything but immediate gratification.

The hope: Trump

Europe could have chosen to align itself with the return-to-sanity movements and common sense and lean on the new Trump administration to face the existential challenges that threaten it. But that would have meant denying the course that this "E.U. Titanic" has set for itself and accepting that its approaches were wrong. This, unfortunately, is unthinkable.

So it has chosen precisely the opposite: to give America a pulse. Only without physical preparation or muscle after decades of softness. With all the criticism of the trade tariffs advocated by Trump, it does not seem that his evils are affecting the economy or the pockets of the Americans, rather to the business of the Europeans. The predicted weakness of the dollar, as well as the loss of confidence in it, are not leading the euro to consolidate as an international exchange currency, on the contrary. And no matter how much they promise in the field of military spending, they will never pay enough and, more importantly, they will never spend it on necessary capabilities, but on the large platforms that our industries manufacture, platforms that, as we have seen with Operation Spiderweb, are more vulnerable than ever.

Europeans, no doubt, like to live well, enjoy champagne and beer, relax on southern beaches and work as few hours as possible. But from experience, we know that people adapt to misery relatively easily. Especially when the rulers lose their democratic nature and become the autocrats of a soft dictatorship. Or hard. That will have to be seen over time. But the political and social evolution of the bloc will not be otherwise. Only Trump can act as a lifeline for a few. I do not think that Macron, who prefers to send soldiers to Greenland before the United States annexes it, or Sánchez, the far-left Spanish leader who sees in Trump a devil at the head of a far-right international, can do so.

And all because Brussels, that plethora of officials elected by no one, and its leaders, appointed by the governments of the day, do not want to change course. We are on the Titanic with suicidal captains at the helm. No more, no less.