Arnaud Bertrand
This is extraordinary. For the many of you who wonder how the EU could agree to such a humiliating “deal” with Trump, wonder no more.
We have an unusually straightforward answer directly from the horse’s mouth: Sabine Weyand, who’s the Directorate-General for Trade at the EU commission.
As she puts its:
- “If you didn’t hear me say the word ‘negotiation’ – that’s because there wasn’t one.” => the U.S. dictated the terms
- “From the Commission’s perspective, this was a strategic compromise, not an ideal economic solution” => they’re aware this completely f*cks the EU economically
- “The European side was under massive pressure to find a quick solution to stabilize transatlantic relations – especially with regard to security guarantees” => the EU agreed to the “deal” under a protection racket
- “We have a land war on the European continent. And we are completely dependent on the United States. The member states were not prepared to take the risk of further escalation – that would have been the consequence of European countermeasures.” => Europe acted out of fear, choosing economic submission because of its total dependence on the U.S. (which ironically will only worsen the dependence)
There you have it, she said the quiet part out loud: the EU is in such a terrible strategic situation and EU leaders have so little courage that they’re unable and unwilling to say ‘no’ to even the most humiliating demands.
https://xcancel.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1960603151154790469
Nice to see them admit it for once.
This is by the way exactly what Putin (and also everyone else with any understanding of how the US-EU relationship works) said would happen. Euros beat their chest and act tough but when Washington snaps they all heel like the obedient dogs they are.
Europe’s self-inflicted century of humiliation has already begun.
And they have still lost in Ukraine no matter how deep they kowtow to the Yankees.
I wonder if this could finally trigger the EU’s collapse. The EU has no independent treasury, and every euro it spends must be squeezed from member budgets of the member states. So whatever grand deal Ursula signs is only as good as the day countries decide to actually pony up. If they balk, which seems likely with nationalist movements surging everywhere, the whole structure starts crumbling.
The EU’s entire premise rests on the promise that free trade and free movement would boost economies. But if the math flips and the bloc becomes a net drain on national coffers bleeding them dry, the calculus changes overnight. We’re already seeing this play out with anti-EU rhetoric getting louder. Parties across Europe are hammering the message that Brussels is killing our prosperity, and voters are listening.
Finally, there’s now a credible alternative on the table. BRICS won’t replace the EU for giants like Germany or France, but for cash-strapped, disillusioned members? Absolutely. Hungary’s already flirting with the bloc. Greece, Slovakia, maybe even Italy, they’re all watching. If the budget fights turn ugly and the “drain” narrative sticks, why wouldn’t they cut their losses and jump ship?
The moment countries decide that they’re funding a project that harms them? That’s when the dominoes fall.
I guess that all depends on how much sovereignty the member states can claw back from Brussels. As we saw with Romania (and Moldova more recently, which is even more worrying because it’s not even a EU member), elections are heavily manipulated and lawfare is ruthlessly deployed to neutralize opposition the EU and install compliant puppets.
Dissident governments like Hungary are under intense hybrid assault by Brussels to try to get regime change by any means, from funding NGOs and forcing all opposition parties into a united front, to cutting their EU funds in order to create an economic crisis. In Slovakia they tried assassination. In Italy they quickly managed to tame the right wing nationalists and make them bend the knee to Brussels.
Probably the same will happen in Germany and France if AfD or FN are ever allowed to win (which is not a given, as there are ways that these parties can still be permanently kept out of power even if they become the most popular party in the country). And as for the small members, the smaller they are the easier they are to control by blackmail and threats because they are that much more dependent on the EU.
Stuff like we saw in Romania and Moldova, will work in the short term, but in the long run it only further discredits the whole system. People are already angry, and now they see that their whole democracy is a sham. Neoliberalism is rapidly discrediting itself, and the economic shock is only starting right now, I expect it’s going to look a lot worse in the near future. The EU doesn’t have any actual solution to the deteriorating material conditions, and the deal with the US will only accelerate the problems they’re already unable to manage. As Lenin famously put it, every society is three hot meals away from chaos.
The situation is definitely not sustainable, but what i’m not sure of is if there is any way for member states to break out of this prison and save themselves before they are dragged down along with the entire EU into the collapse that it is heading toward.
That’s the big question, will any of the states have enough political momentum to exit the EU before it drags them down. That’s difficult to say right now. Hungary might be in the best position simply because the EU is withholding their funds right now, so in a sense they have the least to lose.
They can just take mask off and start relying more on naked coercion. Westerners are so atomized, they would be unable to do anything about it.
Again, that will work for a while but eventually it’s going to forge solidarity within the working class through sheer necessity as it will become a matter of survival.
I hope so.
US 2A people too.