For a couple of weeks, the European political elite is upset. She feels abandoned to her fate in a cruel world that she doesn’t want her. The most agitated for what is happening fear that the United States has changed sides to join “the autocrats” who dream of ending democracy and, with it, Western civilization; They say that Donald Trump is much more interested in congratulating the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin because he admires him that with weakness such as the soon to be a German chancellor Friedrich Merz, French president Emmanuel Macron or the British prime minister Keir Starmer, not to mention the Ukrainian Volodimir Zelensky.
However, there are optimists who pretend to assume that Trump is really deceiving Putin, making him believe he is a friend before facing him with a Leonine ultimatum; They know that, to convince the vain “orange man” that he would make an unforgivable geopolitical error if he kneel against Russian mandamás, they would have to treat him as a great Machiavellian operator and, if he changes his mind, celebrate his cunning. This is the tactic favored by Macron and Starmer.
Although almost all European leaders already coincided with the long series of US presidents and secretaries who, over the years, had asked them to contribute more, much more, to the common defense, none imagined that one day the time would come when they would have to depend on their own military resources to deal with external threats.
It can be understood, therefore, the dismay that has motivated them the nothing kind attitude of Trump and his relatives as the vice president JD Vance who. In addition to warning them that the United States is not willing to take into account the interests of their transatlantic allies, they are accused of betraying basic western values such as respect for freedom of expression censoring manifestations of “hate” in social media and news in their opinion false, and refusing to pay attention to the popular will as they do when they erect sanitary cords around “rightist” parties.
Thus, everything suggests that, for Europe, a time has ended when you did not have to worry about such unfriendly issues as the military. Or not to like its inhabitants, from now on the continent will have to fend for itself in an extremely competitive world that is hostile. The most distressed by what is happening are the members of the technocratic elites of progressive rhetoric that for decades have dominated the most prosperous countries. The parties that represent them, whether they are nominally conservative, centrist or slightly leftist, are beating in front of groups that try to stop by qualifying them as “fascists.”
It is what has just happened in Germany. Although Merz’s Christian Democrats came out first in last Sunday’s elections, they had to settle for a squalid 28.6 of the votes, while the “ultra -right” alternative for Germany (AFD), got more than 20 percent, doubleing what was achieved in 2021. Growing a little more, will have more voters than any other group. It is not that Germans abound that feel nostalgia for Adolf Hitler, it is that, with the recent exception of the Merz CDU/CSU, the other parties have resisted taking the problems caused by the immigration of millions of radically different culture that include jihadists who perpetrate the terrorist attacks that have become routine in all countries of Western Europe.
Although some initiatives of Trump and his companions, people like Elon Musk who are seeking to rationalize the oversized and manirrota American federal bureaucracy, can be considered positive, others are far from being. By giving the impression of being resolved to deliver Ukraine to Putin because he does not like Zelensky who, he believes, some years ago caused some cumbersome political problems, the president of the superpower seems to solidarity with the autocrats who are fighting a furious campaign against Western civilization. It may not be exactly that way, but Trump’s recent behavior, aggravated by his habit of releasing barbarities without worrying about the impact they will have or the veracity of their assertions, has been more than enough to persuade many Europeans, including Merz, that the United States has reassured the position it maintained before Japan was fixed to force him to participate in the Second World War. At that time, the bulk of the Americans wanted to let Europeans cook in their own sauce, an attitude that Trump and his most enthusiastic followers share today.
In order for Europeans to invest more resources in their military forces, they would have to change not only their budget priorities but also their mentality. As of 1945, they got used to the Americans so much in charge of such matters that many made the luxury of criticizing their benefactors for their bellicism and boasting of their alleged commitment to good things such as peace and social welfare. Due to Trump, now Europeans have to choose between the principle weakness based on the notion that the “soft” power is superior to the “hard” of less enlightened times, and the ability to defend against enemies that, unfortunately, do not usually feel impressed by statements of moral superiority.
The most important European leaders reacted to the challenge raised by Trump committing to increase the aid to Ukraine. However, while the United Kingdom, Sweden and France seem to be willing to send troops to ensure that the terms of an eventual armistice, Germans and others are respected, remain reluctant to risk. As a whole, Europe has the necessary economic and human resources to create armies that would be able to expel Russians from Ukrainian territory; What is missing is the will to do so.
Germany is not the only western country in which “the right” is advancing at a disconcerting speed. Something similar is happening in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, different parts of Eastern Europe, the United States and, in its particular way, Argentina. In all cases, the rise of “the right” is a direct consequence of the feeling that the existing order only benefits a self -elected minority formed by arrogant characters who despise those who do not commune with what they preach. However, although the extravagances of the ideologues “Woke” have provided the opponents to the status quo a endless pretexts to repudiate it, the main contribution to the tsunami of discontent that western societies is sweeping has come in the way in which the economies of developed and not so developed countries are evolving.
They have already left the days when a regular, honest and capable worker without very special knowledge could keep a relatively well -paid employment for many years to retire. In rich countries, young people who soon discovered that the expensive education they received did not guarantee anything in the new labor market in which it is very difficult to find such safe jobs as those of just a generation behind. Another victim of technological progress has been the pride that so many felt for their artisanal ability; In Germany, traditions in this regard enabled the emergence of hundreds of world -renowned companies by the superior quality of their products, but lately many have been surpassed by computerized rivals. The discomfort that the bulk of the working class feels in North America and Europe is largely due to the discredit of very demanding manual labor forms.
The success of feminism is also contributing to dynamit the established political order. A result is that, in all Western countries, the most likely to support disruptive movements characterized as “rightists” are men, while women still tend to support traditional parties. In part, this divergence can be attributed to the aggressiveness of feminist militants who strip “the patriarchy” and “toxic masculinity”, but it may have already become normal for women to compete for job positions in which the physical strength lacks importance, has stressed much more by depriving the men of their community in the role of supplier and protector that had been their own since prehistoric times. Naturally, those who feel superfluous are rebelling against a system that does not need them.
The United States generated the Woke phenomenon that did not take long to reach other Anglo -word countries and, with less strength, those of Europe and Latin America. Now, he heads the reaction against him. What Trump represents in its often grotesque, is rapidly modifying the political landscape in many parts of the world. Few leaders may be as explicit in this regard as Javier Milei, but the example provided by Trump is stimulating a multitude of ambitious politicians on all continents.
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