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The author is editorial director and a columnist at Le Monde
On two completely different events over the previous few weeks, I’ve heard former high Biden administration officers make a shocking plea to Europe: America is in hassle and it’s your flip to face up for democracy.
This would definitely be honest, regardless that there’s some irony in People wishing for outdoor assist somewhat than mounting resistance at house — in spite of everything, the Democratic celebration is neither useless nor outlawed. However Europe might have a tough time coming to the rescue since it’s itself a goal of Donald Trump’s assault on liberal democracy, as current election campaigns in Romania and Poland have proven.
Three weeks forward of the Nato summit 2025, the discuss amongst European officers all derives from the obsessive concern of American disengagement from the continent. Will Trump withdraw US troops from Europe? What number of? When? From which international locations? Will a dedication from member states to spend 5 per cent of their GDP on defence, to the plain advantage of the American arms business, fulfill this unpredictable hegemon? Will the transatlantic alliance survive?
With Russia’s conflict in opposition to Ukraine within the background, these questions are official. However they miss the true level. The most important menace the US president poses to Europe is just not the withdrawal of troops or gear — it’s regime change. Trump won’t give up Nato; “demise by a thousand cuts” is a extra believable consequence, in keeping with a former US diplomat.
What the president and his cronies are doing to American democracy — undermining its establishments, normalising corruption, instilling concern in its mental elites, chasing immigrants, intimidating judges, insulting international leaders within the Oval Workplace — is way extra harmful. As Italian political scientist Nathalie Tocci places it: “The true Trumpian shock is just not abandonment, it’s betrayal.”
The transatlantic alliance is meant to be based mostly on shared values. If Washington redefines these values and turns them in opposition to its allies, they are going to inevitably really feel betrayed. That is what occurred when vice-president JD Vance in February accused Europe of “retreating from its most basic values”, together with free speech, and lectured its leaders about this “menace from inside”.
That is additionally what occurred final week when Marco Rubio’s state division revealed a textual content entitled “The Want for Civilizational Allies in Europe” by its “Bureau for Democracy”. “Europe’s democratic backsliding . . . more and more impacts American safety”, it warned. “On each side of the Atlantic, we should protect the products of our frequent tradition, making certain that western civilization stays a supply of advantage, freedom and human flourishing.”
Out of the blue, the ideas underpinning western civilisation have completely different meanings on both facet of the Atlantic. What Rubio calls “tyranny in disguise” is, within the eyes of the German authorities, plain “democracy”. The place Vance sees a “menace from inside”, many European leaders see a menace from the US. In a “values-based alliance”, this can be a drawback.
Historians might level out that Europeans and People have had disagreements over values earlier than. What’s completely different this time is just not solely the extent to which the Trump administration seeks to remodel the American political system, but in addition the truth that his workforce, notably his vice-president, desires Europe to comply with the identical path.
This offensive is launched at a time when many governments in Europe really feel susceptible due to the rise of far-right events. They see this development as their very own “menace from inside”, whereas for Trump’s operatives, it’s a formidable instrument to push the Maga agenda in Europe. “Now the chief of this motion is within the White Home,” laments a Spanish official. “For us, this can be a game-changer.”
Poland’s centre-right authorities has watched with dismay as Washington took an in depth curiosity in its election. Trump hosted the nationalist candidate Karol Nawrocki within the Oval Workplace two weeks earlier than the primary spherical final month. Then, simply 5 days earlier than the second spherical, with polls promising a really shut contest, Kristi Noem, US homeland safety secretary, turned up at an occasion in Poland to help Nawrocki, who narrowly received the election on Sunday.
Success is just not assured. In Romania, the candidate supported by Trump did not get elected final month. Some European far-right politicians really feel uneasy about being related to an unpopular American president.
Beleaguered European democrats have some onerous work to do. America is in hassle, however earlier than they may help they have to put their very own home so as.
