Summary
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron held a call to discuss the potential implications of Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency for Europe.
The leaders pledged to strengthen cooperation for a “more united, stronger, more sovereign Europe” in light of this possibility. Macron emphasized a commitment to European sovereignty while maintaining cooperation with the U.S. Additionally, German and French defense ministers plan to meet to coordinate on defense policies.
Trump’s ambiguous stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine and his critical view of NATO burden-sharing raise concerns in Europe about future U.S.-Europe relations.
I sincerely hope the European powers will overcome their internal politics and the rightward slide many of them seem to be on, and cooperate more closely for the world’s sake. I want to be hopeful for the climate and humanity.
Hopefully Canada will stick with Europe rather than the US ideologically, but with how things are going here we seem farther along on our rightward slide.
We are just as prone to right-wing propaganda here in Canada as Americans are too. I’m sure it’s much worse here in Alberta than elsewhere, but it is painfully obvious to me just how aggressive the social media propaganda machine is influencing the minds of everyone here. Yet, if I mention it, I am the crazy one who is being brainwashed… Of course.
I live in Saskatchewan and I was just talking to a “right wing” friend of mine about this very issue. I had gone on a diatribe about right-wing conservatives in the US and she was getting a little upset thinking I was upset with her as a “Canadian right-winger”. So I pointed out to her that she isn’t actually “right-wing”. In fact very few people in Canada except for some nut-jobs who want to bring Trumpism to Canada are right-wing as the U.S. would describe it.
Our typical right-winger, including some very good friends of mine, are conservative, but not anti-abortion, hand-maid’s tale, anti-immigrant conservatives. Our right-wing would be considered liberal to the United States and the only reason most people here think they have to defend Trump is because they nominally share the adjective of “conservative” even though they’re VASTLY different levels of right-wing.
They’re innundated with American news 24-7 and don’t make any distinction between what they believe and what MAGA believes, but when you ask them specificially what they believe in, it’s far far far closer to an American’s concept of liberalism than of MAGA.