Following a series of verbal attacks on the European Union by American leaders, the President of the European Council, António Costa, said on Monday 8 December during a debate at the Jacques Delors Institute in Paris that the Union had to protect itself against the United States.
“If we are allies, we must act like allies. Allies do not threaten to interfere in the domestic political life of their allies. We respect them. We respect each other’s sovereignty”, he stressed.
So, while the US National Security Strategy published at the end of November welcomed the growing influence of ‘European patriotic parties’, Mr Costa warned that the United States could not replace European citizens in distinguishing between good and bad political parties.
“We cannot accept this threat of interference in the political life of Europe”, he explained.
According to the President of the European Council, “if we want to protect ourselves, not only against our adversaries, but also against allies who challenge us, we need to strengthen Europe”. He added: “We need to work together to build a Europe that understands that the relationships between allies and alliances after the Second World War have changed”, an alliance that is strong both internally and on the international stage.
As a symbol of the extreme exacerbation of transatlantic relations, the fine imposed by the European Commission on X last Friday (see EUROPE 13767/1) has almost become a geopolitical casus belli on the other side of the Atlantic. Ironically, it is on this same social network that reactions are the most polarised.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the platform, did not hesitate to republish a post comparing the EU to the Nazi Third Reich, a few hours after calling for the dismantling of Europe. “The EU should be dissolved and sovereignty restored to each country, so that governments can better represent their people”, he said on Saturday. This stance was welcomed by Dmitry Medvedev, the Vice-President of the Russian Security Council.
An outspoken crusader against European legislation and notoriously opposed to all Commission decisions, which he compares to the Stasi [the political police in the former East Germany], Elon Musk was far from the only person this weekend to take up the pen to attack the EU head-on.
A number of American politicians and social network personalities, most of whom are right-wing, have strongly condemned the European decision. “The fine [...] imposed by the European Commission is not just an attack on X, it is an attack on all American technology platforms and the American people by foreign governments”, the head of US diplomacy, Marco Rubio, denounced on Friday evening.
These statements were denounced on Monday by the Commission itself. “This is part of the freedom of expression that we cherish in the EU, which allows for the wildest statements”, said the EU institution’s spokesperson, Paula Pinho.
For his part, António Costa explained that the United States could not replace Europe in its vision of freedom of expression. “There will be no freedom of expression if citizens’ freedom of information is sacrificed to defend the United States’ technology oligarchs”, he warned.
This wave of recriminations, coupled with the dismay caused by the new US security strategy, has triggered a veritable “war of opinions” online between supporters and opponents of the EU.
Over the weekend, the social network was awash with European flags, accompanied by a series of messages from government officials and heads of state denouncing lies and attacks from the other side of the Atlantic. “Go to Mars. They don’t censor Nazi salutes over there”, retorted Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister, to a message from Elon Musk. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre and Camille-Cerise Gessant)