Europe without “umbrella”

I remember, AFP correspondent to Bonn in the 1980show the “American umbrella” reassured the Federal Republic of Germany, even if it frightened its youth. At the end of the Cold War, the American missiles Pershing II were deployed there. If the Greens and the pacifist left manifested against them, none of the power coalition parties were seriously questioning this protection. In Washington, either president either. Throughout Western Europe, since 1942 and the intervention of the GI against Nazism, it was an acquired acquired: the American administration, whether republican or democrat, was an ally, a friend.

This balance is now completely questioned by Trump : Europeans are forced to rearm and, even if the United States remains in NATO, there is no longer any automatic guarantee that they will come to the aid of an attacked member country. They want to let the allies of Europe deploy alone interposition troops on some 2,000 km separating Ukraine from its area occupied by Russia and Belarus, if a ceasefire was signed one day between kyiv and Moscow.

Resumption of dialogue between Donald Trump and Vladimir PutinAmerican admonitions at the Munich security conference were cold showers. Because the Europeans, divided, are far from 5 % of their budget for their defense that Washington recommends and that only reached Warsaw. They have neither integrated command nor dissuasive weapons. Volodymyr Zelensky says it without eyeshadows: Ukraine would be defeated if Washington stopped arm and that it could only count on the support of Europeans. Moscow rubs his hands.

Donald Trump despises the European Union and its rules. He loves unilateralism, refuses consultation. He has in common with Vladimir Putin the talent of dividing to reign: pro-Russians, such as the Hungarians, but also to the Ukrainians, the Balts, the Poles, he could make deals for their defense, under his conditions and with his counterparts. Serious threats to European unity.