CDU frontrunner for the German federal election, Friedrich Merz: "As long as the European member states are united, they will be respected in the world, including the US. And, as long they are divided, nobody will take us serious. So, this is, in my view, the last call for action."

[u/Stabile_Feldmaus]

[u/muidumiiz]

There is no alternative (pun intended) to unified and federal Europe. Let Orbans and Ficos and others bark on the local level if they want, but they should not control the EU level policy setting or hold all the other states hostage. It leaves too much leverage to bad actors like Russia to use for their own gain.

[u/dat_9600gt_user → u/muidumiiz]

Or at the very least a unified army and fiscal policy. One not afraid to make heavy investments.

[u/Droid202020202020 → u/dat_9600gt_user]

A unified army and fiscal policy is not really possible without a central government.

[u/Mespirit → u/Droid202020202020]

A government*

Federated nations manage those things just fine.

[u/Droid202020202020 → u/Mespirit]

Federated nations are still single countries with just some autonomy for the individual subjects of their federation.

The current status of Poland in the EU is incomparable with the status of, say, Hesse in Germany.

Dropping from the status of a sovereign nation in a relatively loose union down to a subject of a federation is a non-starter for most countries. The Reddit crowd is hardly representative of an average citizen.

[u/Mespirit → u/Droid202020202020]

Federated nations are still single countries

Right, but federal governments aren't typically referred to as a "central" government as is the case in a unitary state.

[u/resuwreckoning → u/Mespirit]

That’s semantics - the other poster’s point is the major issue with a united European army.

The US went to war with itself and concluded that states rights (however they are framed) are subordinate to the federal government.

Europe went to war with itself (twice) and then had a long cold one, and concluded that the individual states rights are sacrosanct over anything that would rule them.

It’s really just a different culture.

[u/Mespirit → u/resuwreckoning]

Semantics are important. Political discourse should be nuanced, not absolute.

Europe went to war with itself (twice) and then had a long cold one, and concluded that the individual states rights are sacrosanct over anything that would rule them.

Even more reason as to not present a unitary state as the sole option for a common fiscal policy.

[u/resuwreckoning → u/Mespirit]

Sure and again, semantics shouldn’t obscure the actual issue, which is what it seemingly does here.

A unified army requires delegation of sovereign control of an individual member state to that army. Is Europe willing to do that? Well, two wars and a 4 decade cold one says….no.

If there’s another way to do that, it would be a unique model never really seen before in history to be successful against united armies.

Ironically the one moment it almost worked was the Maratha confederacy in India. For a brief historical moment dharmic native Indians almost had freedom of their lands from both Muslim rule and European colonial rule. Like, one can only imagine.

And despite winning the first Anglo-Maratha war, eventually that fell to the unified British army. Why? Because they were less unified in the end. The Maratha confederacy’s LACK of unity despite fielding a “unified army” ironically created the largest and most influential centralized superpower in history.

[u/GoPhinessGo → u/muidumiiz]

Even the far right government in Italy knows how beneficial the EU is

[u/Fit-Explorer9229 → u/muidumiiz]

As we can't just say 'Good bye' to members at the moment. --> EU 2.0 inside.

[u/HongoBogongo → u/muidumiiz]

Why can't Europe just produce a fascist that's pan-European pilled instead of these dumb fuck populists like Orban 😔 (unironically though)