Last Updated on Thursday, 22 February, 2024 at 1:50 pm by Andre Camilleri
Last Monday, after visiting the PL’s local committees of Mqabba and Marsa, I sat down to read the news. Frustratingly, I came across an article reporting that the current president of the EU Commission announced her bid for another term. It is the least I was expecting.
When I read through the article, I gasped for a second. It dawned on me that this woman is seriously manipulative. Von der Leyen said that her ambition, ahem, at 65 years, is now to make Europe more competitive. Ursula von der Leyen is an expert in twisting narratives with annoying clichés. Honestly, when I read the news, I burst out laughing. During her term she made it a point to coerce everyone, using the pandemic as a pretext to alienate Europeans, while riding roughshod over the back-to-back war in Ukraine to extend the alienation to achieve the green transition. I am not sure if it is von der Leyen’s ego that is about to burst or if she suffers from delusions of grandeur. Else, at 65 years old, there is only one plausible reason to believe that she wants to make Europe more competitive. However, I leave it up to your imagination.
First, she screwed Europe up and made it her sole mission to break diplomatic channels along with others. Now, it seems that at 65 years, she wants to make Europe more competitive. Please, do us all a favour and go. Let’s forget for a minute the mayhem she created with the overengineering, among others, of the EU environmental laws, which au contraire made Europe uncompetitive. Von der Leyen does not want to make Europe competitive. Reading between the lines, the president of the European Commission wants to use Competitiveness under the Treaty of Lisbon to reinforce defence, which means that in 2024, her aim, is more military at the expense of other budget lines because it is unsustainable under the current EU rules to keep up with the spending. At some point they even wanted to militarise space when I was in the PSC seat. Just imagine what they want to do with planet earth.
The current president of the European Commission comes from a defence background. She served as the former defence minister of the largest member state. Indeed, the EU is not the USA, and governments in Council must scrutinise what she is doing in the corridors of the Berlaymont building. Let’s leave aside the laundry room that she turned into a bedroom, which goes against all the ethics of diplomats. Von der Leyen’s bunkering mentality is dragging Europe into a dangerous path. And if the president of the European Parliament follows or is following her narrative on defence it does not augur well. Certainly, the current president of the European Commission must leave. And she must leave asap. The sooner Ursula and her acolytes are booted out of the EU, the better it is for us all.
The only competitiveness that von der Leyen is competent to push for, is not for Europe, but the competition she entered with Roberta Metsola when it comes to the military and defence narratives. It is looking more like a fashion show devoid of army attire but bountiful on the narrative of ramping up military resources. Meanwhile, Josep Borell does not know what hit him, and is AWOL. It is a mockery of European politics. Coincidentally, those calling for the ramping up of military resources, including nuclear armaments, are mostly Germans. Manfred Weber and von der Leyen are both German. Surely, their country will do quite well, especially their economy, if they start producing more military equipment, now, that they lost their competitiveness because Vladimir Putin does not provide them with cheap gas any longer. They just want to enrich themselves out of the production of arms and military equipment. Surely, the more they mention military and defence the sexier they will look in the eyes of the EPP. Hold your horse Mr Macallister. God knows what they are hatching behind our back. Now, you can conclude who is really dangerous and ridiculous.
The current show is truly sad for Europe. This is not in the interest of the EU and its citizens. It is only in the interest of those who want to retain their seats. All they are doing is entering into a battle of narratives of who will expedite the race of mentioning defence to secure their positions. Frankly, I do not know what is wrong with these people. The invasion of Ukraine is entering in its third year. Saturday, 24 February, will mark two years since the beginning of the war. Since then, we have witnessed multiple events occurring and irrational diplomatic decisions. Whereas before Azerbaijan was not a reliable partner due to the treatment of journalists, now they have become reliable partners. Whereas before we used to push for the idea of human rights in Egypt, we forgot all about them. Whereas before we used to speak about the Two-State Solution, their visit to Israel sealed the dreadful fate of Gazans and the scrapping of the decades of diplomatic efforts for a possible Two-State Solution for Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Ilham Aliyev swept Armenians out of Nagorno Karabakh, and he seems to have decided to pull out of the Minsk agreements, stating that the disputed land is now solved. Well, it was solved with arms aggression. When you read the news, it seems that everything changed. Donald Trump was quoted saying that if Russia attacks a country that does not pay for NATO it’s encouraged, as they deserve it for their freeriding. And Weber is calling for the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Sincerely, they all went bonkers.
The idea of creating NATO was mainly to keep its founding members safe since its inception in 1949, and to foster democracy in Europe as a deterrent. However, the idea was also to keep the Soviet Union out of it, the Americans in and the Germans below. How long will this last? We will only get to know after 4 November. Meanwhile, we have to put up with the narrative of military and defence investments, while farmers are out with pitchforks protesting against the EU rules.
We need a vision for Europe. A vision away from military and defence, and a one built on fostering diplomatic relations among member states, and third countries. Europe needs true diplomats. We need a narrative built on fostering relations and peace not breaking relations that fuel conflicts. Nobody wants to descend into a war path. Or at least, I hope.
