Yet again I’m going to act as a translator, not a writer. Two days ago, the French centre-right senator Claude Malhuret delivered a rousing speech that somehow escaped the attention of our press.
I hereby rely on my modest translating skills to correct this oversight:
Mr Prime Minister, esteemed ministers, dear colleagues, Europe stands at a critical crossroads of its history. The American shield is collapsing, the Ukraine risks losing her support, Russia is getting stronger. Washington has turned into the court of Nero: incendiary emperor, docile courtiers and a ketamine-befuddled buffoon responsible for purging the civil service.
This is a tragedy for the free world, but above all for the USA herself. Trump’s message is unequivocal: it makes no sense to be America’s ally because she won’t protect you, she’ll introduce tariffs against you in excess of those imposed on her enemies, and she’ll threaten to invade your territories while supporting the dictators attacking you. “The king of deals” is in fact practising the art of capitulation.
He thinks that, by kowtowing to Putin, he will scare China but, as he looks on this debacle, Xi Jinping is definitely accelerating preparations for invading Taiwan. Never in US history has a president capitulated to an enemy. Never before has a White House resident supported an aggressor against an ally.
Never before has a president abused the Constitution so blatantly: illegal orders, sacking of judges capable of resistance, summary purge of high military command, undermining of all checks and balances, usurpation of control over social networks. This isn’t just an ‘illiberal slant’ – this is an attempt to usurp democracy. It’s good to remember that it took only a month, three weeks and a day to destroy the Weimar Republic.
I believe in the strength of American democracy, and protests have already begun in that country. Yet Trump has caused more harm to America in barely a month than he did in the whole four years of his previous tenure. We fought against a dictator – now we are fighting against a dictator abetted by a traitor.
Eight days ago, as Trump was patting Macron on the back in the White House, the US voted with Russia and North Korea – against Europe demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops. Two days later in the Oval Office, Trump the ‘draft dodger’ hectored Zelensky, the moral and strategic hero of the war, and then sent him away like an inept servant, saying: “Submit or get out.” Last night he went even further by stopping the supplies of weapons already promised.
How should we respond to this treachery? The answer is simple: by resisting. Above all, make no mistake: defeat of the Ukraine will spell defeat of all of Europe.
The Kremlin’s hit list already includes the Baltic countries, Georgia, Moldova. Putin’s goal is a return to Yalta, where half of Europe was delivered to Stalin. And the countries of the global south are awaiting the resolution of this conflict, to decide whether Europe is still to be respected or trampled on.
Putin strives to destroy the order introduced 80 years ago by the US and her allies, whose main principle was a ban on conquering territories by force. This principle lies at the foundation of the UN, but today’s America votes for the aggressor and against its victim because ‘Trumpism’ coincides with Putin’s view of the world. The idea is going back to spheres of influence, with great powers deciding the destiny of small countries.
“I’ll have Greenland, Panama and Canada; you can have the Ukraine, Baltics and Eastern Europe; he can have Taiwan and the South China Sea.” That’s what Mar-a-Lago oligarchs call ‘diplomatic realism’. In reality this means only one thing: we are on our own.
But insisting that it’s impossible to resist Putin is a lie. Quite the opposite, contrary to Kremlin propaganda Russia is getting weaker. In three years ‘the world’s second army’ has managed to grab only a few crumbs from a country that has a third of Russia’s population.
Interest rates of 25 per cent, depletion of currency and gold reserves, demographic collapse – Russia is teetering at the edge of an abyss. The US support of Putin is the greatest strategic error in the history of warfare. However, this shock has brought Europe to its senses.
Over just one day in Munich, Europeans realised that the Ukraine’s fate and Europe’s future are in their own hands. Now we face three urgent tasks:
- To compensate for America’s treachery by accelerating arms supplies to the Ukraine, strengthening her defences, and insisting on European presence in all negotiations. This is costly but necessary. It’s time to abandon the taboo and use the frozen Russian assets, while also creating a coalition of resolute countries in defiance of the pro-Russian saboteurs within the EU.
- Any treaty must include the return of all kidnapped children, the release of all POWs, and absolute security guarantees. After Budapest, Georgia and Minsk we know the true worth of ‘agreements’ with Putin. Therefore Europe must have enough military might to prevent another invasion.
- To create European defence, abandoned after 1945 and further undermined after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is a giant task, but it’s on its success or failure that future generations will judge today’s leaders of Europe.
Friedrich Merz has said that Europe needs its own military alliance – this means France has been right all these decades in defending her strategic autonomy. Now it needs to be strengthened.
Large-scale investments, a European defence fund in excess of the Maastricht limitations on debt, unification of weapon systems, fast-tracked admission of the Ukraine into the EU, Europe’s greatest armed force. A new nuclear strategy based on French and British forces. Development of anti-missile defences and satellite systems. Ursula von der Leyen’s plan is a good beginning, but more will be required.
Europe can again become a military power only if she reclaims the status of an industrial superpower. Hence we need Mario Draghi’s plan, and this time we must act on it.
But the main factor of European rearmament is moral mobilisation. We must convince society to overcome fatigue, the fear of war and the resistance of Putin’s allies, both extreme right and extreme left. Yesterday, Mr Prime Minister, they again spoke at the National Assembly against European unity, against European defence.
They say they want peace. But what they are really working for is capitulation. Their ‘peace’ is defeat. It’s replacing Gaulle-Zelensky with a Ukrainian Pétain obedient to Putin. This is the peace of collaborators who have been sabotaging any aid to the Ukraine for three years.
The end of the Atlantic alliance? The risk is great. But over the past few days, the humiliation of Zelensky and a series of insane decisions have caused indignation within the USA herself.
Trump’s ratings are going down, Republicans face hostile crowds in their constituencies, even Fox News has begun to criticise the president. The Trumpists are still controlling the executive branch, Congress, the Supreme Court and the social networks, but those fighting for freedom have always emerged victorious in American history. And they are raising their heads.
The Ukraine’s fate is being decided in the trenches. But it also depends on those fighting for democracy in the US and also on us, our ability to unite Europe, create its defence shield and recover its status of a great power.
Our ancestors defeated fascism and communism at a cost of great sacrifices. Our task is to defeat the totalitarianism of the 21st century.
Glory to a free Ukraine! Long live democratic Europe!
I might have worded a few things differently, and my faith in the EU is less robust than Mr Malhuret’s. But by and large I have only two words to add to this inspiring message: hear, hear!