“Every time Trump or members of his administration have lashed out at Europe, including Ukraine, Europeans have absorbed the blow with a forced smile and bent over backwards to flatter the White House.” (…)
“While a systemic answer to Europe’s security conundrum is not in sight, Europeans do have the levers to prevent Ukraine’s capitulation and create the conditions for a just peace.”



How about falling to fascism and alignment with Russia or the USA, one country at a time? The process of undermining European democracy internally is already well underway.
That would stop in the moment the other party (parties) would start to be a responsible party and not a driven_by_the_ideology_of_ the_day party.
What you call fascist in reality is mostly the right that started to talk about real problems that the left choose to ignore (if not making them worst) and then get elected.
True, there are some real fascists here and there and they are extremist but overall they are a minority of the right (and, tbh, these extremist are present also on the left and everything in between).
Good point and very likely too. The moderate and left parties need to reinvent and redefine themselves better.
But imo simply talking about " the real issues " will not help us, and most solutions the (more) rightwinged parties offer are just false. The worries people have are real but comsider that this fear is also used for fear mongering and are often fed by propaganda.
Probably it will not help to solve the problem, but at least it is a start. True, you need then to act on the issues…
… and you are right here. The rightwinged often offer solutions that are doomed to fail but at least they try.
More importantly, if you talk and act on these, you don’t leave the scene to just one side.
That’s the point, but let’s be honest: if we ignore the extremists on both sides, the right began to win exactly when the left decide to commit suicide following ideas and objectives which, while obviously deserving, are not what people were asking to act about.
Ok , needed to read that sentence 3 times.
Tbh, I dont think I’m not actually ignoring them, though yes, they both get under my skin. I do believe that polarisation is a big issue, that’s apart from the question who is actually right or wrong. I also think that sofar, I haven’t seen any good or “easy” solution. Our isues are unique and complex, and sometimes solutions take time. So I guess we probably have to be confident we as a society will somehow find a way, without shutting eachother out. That means understanding. Fear for change or fear for too little change, for one could be a commonality. For now, in these trying times, maybe having a Government that mostly sort of works might be a great miracle already. I’m just saying…how do we even measure or compare it all? I don’t know.
Yeah how about that? The rise of Facism is most certainly not uniquely a European problem for starters, they are growing roots everywhere There is a whole worldwide culture war going on.
The undermining of Europe has existed for a long while now actually; let’s say since after the construction of the Berlin wall. The difference now is that’s concentrated in the resurgence of the extreme right, also it seems more widespread , and the last years the efforts by US and or RF and CCP have intensified.
In a very weird way Europe should really thank the UK for the Brexit. If that event hadn’t shook Europe to it’s core, the anti-EU lobby would now have had a much stronger grip.