The last two weeks have been immensely enlightening. For Europeans, they have perhaps been, above all, promising. Thanks for this must go to the president of the United States because, during his brief visit to the old continent, there was “Ascension Day, but Donald Trump did not ascend very high in the esteem of Europe”. This scything comment by Professor Sven Biscop of the University of Ghent in the article “Trump First” which he published on the website of the august Egmont Institute is neither inappropriate nor outrageous: the mixture of “vulgarity, arrogance, ignorance and rudeness”, that incisive journalist Nathalie Nougayrède says Trump displayed (The Guardian, 29 May) is inexcusable nor can there be any extenuating circumstances for it – except that he is determined to embark on “USexit”.
In Brussels then later in Taormina, the current (and perhaps fleeting) occupant of the White House turned his back on the Western “family”, which his country had jealously nurtured – and directed – since the end of the last world war. Today, another British journalist, Suzanne Moore, can rightly take the view that, Trump, by dint of his comments and behaviour, has handed over the baton to “Angela Merkel - or ‘leader of the free world’ as she is now to be known” (The Guardian, 29 May). In any event, it is the end of an era in transatlantic relations that is taking place before our eyes and even the non-believers have to acknowledge it.
It is evidenced in the German chancellor’s outspokenness in her speeches last weekend. At a CSU election rally in Munich, the ever-cautious and diplomatic Angela Merkel broke with the central tenet of German security since the time of the long-departed Chancellor Adenauer: doing nothing that might affect the transatlantic bond and the protection of the Federal Republic that is assured within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
Even General De Gaulle came to grief at the start of the 1960s in trying to loosen this umbilical cord between Washington and, at that time, Bonn: the Franco-German Treaty of Friendship which he devised in 1963 to slacken the bond and assert the autonomy, the independence even, of Europe very quickly saw a preamble added by the Germans, reducing his plan virtually to nought.
Thus the statement by Angela Merkel is a radical and frankly historic departure from Germany’s traditional international stance: “The times in which we can fully rely on others are partially coming to an end. I’ve experienced that in the past few days. That’s why we Europeans have to take our fate into our own hands.” It could almost sound like a posthumous victory for De Gaulle.
It isn’t because these comments by Chancellor Merkel are nothing short of the conclusion of a chapter of history, one that has been written with De Gaulle and his famous appeal of 18 June 1940 since the Second World War. The reversal is hard, no doubt leaving disenchantment in the mind of one who is seeking a fourth term of office as German chancellor. But Ms Merkel is a political leader who is realistic, clear-sighted and able to see the world as it is, not as she would like it to be.
With his “nouveau riche” remarks, trusting only to the law of the jungle, of the most aggressively ruthless, President Trump has succeeded in pushing the United States’ most faithful ally to accept that a page was turning with all the implications that that entailed, including on defence. Ultimately, even more than the Balkans, Libya, Crimea and Ukraine, it is, according to Jolyon Howorth, Professor of International Relations at Yale University, Donald Trump who “has done most to let Europeans see that there is more to unite than to divide them” (La Libre Belgique, 25 May).
Some will no doubt argue, while the occupants of the White House are resident for four or (at most) eight years, the alliances forged by the United States endure. This is true, except that one cannot get away from the facts: “the United States no longer sees Europe as a strategic interest, as was the case during the cold war”, Howorth notes. Even when Obama was president, was Washington not turning its attention more towards Asia, and China in particular, than towards Europe? This is perhaps partly what lay behind Donald Trump’s reluctance to affirm Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty which demands “one for all and all for one”.
Following Chancellor Merkel’s comments, Europeans have, in front of them, a blank page which they have to begin to fill. How? By acknowledging first of all, as Professor Biscop calls on them to do, that they must put “Europe first”, but “not as opposed to America, but as opposed to myopic national views”. That is to say, by finally managing to “combine together Europe’s assets in all dimensions of power: political, economic and military”. And Biscop, who heads the Europe in the World Programme at the Egmont Institute, tells European political leaders that they don’t have to devote 2% of their GDP to defence; all that is required is simply “to integrate our defence” within a framework of “Permanent Structured Cooperation”. As well as costing them much less, this will be more effective than piecemeal efforts.
Ms Merkel has put her head above the parapet. She now awaits President Macron who will, without any doubt, soon stand beside her. Germany’s call carries within it the promise of a fresh start, with things being done much better. Some symbols have the power to fire the imagination: the little town of Taormina perched high on a hillside is only a few kilometres from Messina, where the political leaders of the six founding countries laid the groundwork for the relaunch of the process of European integration in the wake of the failure of the European Defence Community following rejection by the Gaullists and Communists in the French National Assembly.
Ever since, European defence policy has been something akin to the Holy Grail. Unwittingly, Donald Trump may very well be about to provide it with the opportunity to become a reality. The leader writer with Le Monde has, however, delivered a warning to Emmanuel Macron: “The new head of state must resist going it alone- this would have a whiff of overbearing pride and outmoded Gaullism but would be ineffective, and perhaps even counter-productive. The only possible way forward is through Europe” (Le Monde, 29 May).
It’s crystal clear: the way forward must be through Europe! If you agree with us, come and join us, must be the rallying cry of Macron and Merkel to their partners!
Michel Theys