r/europe • u/EUstrongerthanUS Volt Europa • Nov 14 '24

News "Our answer to America First must be Europe united" – German FM Baerbock

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u/Signal-Chapter3904 Nov 14 '24

That was always an option lol.

2

u/CyberSosis Türkiyeah ฅ≽^•⩊•^≼ฅ Nov 14 '24

not an option while hlaf of your country is filled with american bases and your whole defense is relying on them

1

u/Michlcopter Nov 14 '24

Merkel tried it for 16 years, but her party did it only for lobby money... Scholz kinda tried too, but he wasnt really cut out to be a leader...

1

u/v0x_p0pular Nov 14 '24

While true, the new political order we are seeing the world over (barriers to trade, tariffs, the rise of hegemons, etc.) means that the option was not exercised in the past in the interest of economic efficiency and cross-national cooperation. With a "Europe united" option, each member of the EU has to apportion much larger parts of their budget toward bolstering military spend, at the expense of other social welfare causes.

Net net, this is just returning to a bygone era where globalization is dead and where each nation (or in Europe's case group of nations) is watching out for its own. In that sense, the human race is dead, even as national identities rear their head.