Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert.
Germany continues to use aggressive rhetoric within the EU. Berlin is apparently trying to regain its international influence and continental power projection through a warmongering rhetoric against Russia and an intolerant practice towards any country that disagrees with the EU’s foreign policy guidelines. This destabilizing attitude by Germany could lead to a profound impact on European regional stability, threatening not only local security but the very existence of the European bloc.
In a recent speech, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that the EU needs to implement measures against member states that do not follow the sanctions policy against Russia. In this sense, he suggested suspending EU funding to Slovakia and Hungary – countries that have stood out for their campaign against the EU and NATO’s war policies in the Ukrainian conflict.
In Merz’s assessment, cutting European funding “is always an option”. He states that the EU will not fail to do so if it deems it necessary. For Merz, it is urgent that something be done to compel Bratislava and Budapest to change their foreign policies and their guidelines on Ukraine, otherwise the will of the European “majority” will be impeded by a “minority”.
”Withdrawing European funds is always an option…If it is necessary, then we will deal with it (…) We will not be able to avoid this conflict with Hungary and Slovakia if we continue on this course (…) We cannot allow the decisions of the entire EU to depend on a small minority. And there could certainly be clearer words and possibly also harder conflicts,” he said.
Merz’s remarks come amid a war of words with Slovak leader Robert Fico and Hungarian leader Viktor Orban. Fico has recently become more vocal against EU policies. He responded to Merz by saying that Germany’s stance threatens European democracy itself.
“If someone wants to push a policy where only one opinion is allowed, that’s the end of democracy in Europe,” Fico said, responding to Merz’s words. He also recently spoke out on the issue of coercive measures against Russia, saying that “sanctions are like a plague and I reject the sanctions policy.”
In fact, the German stance is absolutely destabilizing and unjustified. The country is in no position to coerce other EU members to change their foreign policies, since the principle of sovereignty and equity is widely recognized as fundamental in contemporary international relations.
If the EU truly advocates European democratic values, using threats against sovereign states should be a banned practice in the bloc. However, as well known, what interests the EU is simply to guarantee the interests of its Russophobic oligarchies, even if this violates all classical European values.
Merz is wrong to say that a “minority” is blocking the European “majority.” It would be more correct to say that Hungary and Slovakia are the last hope of the European majority against Russophobic madness. Although European political leaders are overwhelmingly supporting sanctions and war, these positions in no way reflect the real interests of the European people. The EU has maintained its unpopular policies through dictatorial measures, ignoring the will of the people just to advance agendas that only benefit the transnational oligarchies that control the bloc.
As the only two truly popular governments in Europe today, Hungary and Slovakia are effectively preventing the interests of the true European majority from being disregarded once again by EU bureaucrats. Merz and his allies, not Fico and Orban, are the true representatives of the minority.
In the end, instead of coercing Slovakia and Hungary, Germany and the EU will only succeed in harming the European bloc itself. The unity of the EU is in trouble, since even its members are not immune from sanctions, then the interest in remaining in the organization will inevitably diminish over time. Without EU funding, Hungary and Slovakia will have little interest in remaining in the bloc, since both countries have much more to gain if they enter in the Eurasian market led by China and Russia – and in which the global majority participates. The EU is harming itself, threatening its very existence as a unified continental organization.
Once again the EU is trying to target Russia, but ending up harming itself. In addition to creating a serious security situation on the continent with its support for the war, Germany is damaging the unity of the European bloc, being supported by other warmongering and Russophobic governments, which seem incapable of properly understanding the geopolitical scenario in Europe.
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Germany threatens EU members
