Vance’s words are the same as Draghi’s

di Francesco De Palo

The words of the American vice president JD Vance from Monaco have raised a storm, having done nothing but make European policies reflect the reality of the facts. Is the fault of the doctor who makes a diagnosis or of those who, up until now, have made mistakes with all the treatments?

The starting point is this: the old order in Europe and in the world is currently crumbling also because of the left’s way of thinking and acting. A weak EU is the worst response that can be given.

But why did Vance annoy everyone? Because he rubbed salt in wounds that were caused by wrong policies, designed by a European left that failed to meet historic appointments with strategic issues: uncontrolled immigration, too much bureaucracy in the EU, late common defense, an energy transition that is only ideological and without listening to companies, the boundless ambitions of France and Germany, the common debt that has never really been accepted, the failure to complete a political union.

These are the same defects called into question by other illustrious voices (such as Mario Draghi) in the aftermath of the Greek crisis of 2012 when a grain of sand in the continental economy threatened to jam the entire euro machine. Regarding the former number one of the ECB, his words were equally harsh towards the EU but no one was sorry. He said textually that “it is now clear that acting in this way has brought neither well-being to Europeans, nor healthy public finances, nor even national autonomy”. What is the difference with Vance’s analysis?

Europe has only one way forward: it must not waste time because Vance has nailed it to its limits, but must truly grow to become a political entity. To do this, rapid reforms are needed: military and economic independence, eliminating defense spending from the stability pact and ending with a serious fight against illegal immigration.

On this point Vance was not entirely wrong. Who could deny today that uncontrolled mass immigration has become the biggest problem in Europe? The fact that an attack occurred at the beginning of the Munich conference proves it once again. So there is no point in getting lost behind the rhetoric of the left that accuses the EU and the US of no longer speaking the same language.

The reasoning is different: Europe is called to become great, trying this time not to fail.

At the same time it should get away from absurd problems such as bottle caps or the size of fishing nets to deal with macro issues, such as electric batteries, the race for rare earths, geopolitical strategies towards the east of the world that have a political impact on future decades.