In a bind

Since the Second World War, democracy in Europe has not been as threatened as it is today. Putinism and the authoritarian oligarchy under Trump are jointly squeezing liberal European democracies.

The transatlantic alliance has definitively broken down over this. The public humiliation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, as well as their support for Putin's propaganda, demonstrates that Europe cannot rely on a stable alliance with Washington. Trump's bizarre imperialist pronouncements do their part. An independent European security strategy is therefore not only desirable but necessary.

But authoritarian forces are also gaining influence within Europe. This applies not only to a conservatism that is barely distinguishable from the far-right. Rather, acceptance for strategies of violent exclusion is growing in general – once beginning with the neoliberal Greek „bailout,“ through the repressive illiberalism of lockdown policies (and the rightward drift of their opponents), up to the increasing incitement against migrants. Everywhere, the willingness to stifle nuanced democratic debates with polarizing, knock-out arguments is on the rise. The instigators of hate are advancing in all political camps.

A clear demarcation of Europe from Russia and the USA is necessary. However, at the same time, the planned massive rearmament will undoubtedly strengthen authoritarian forces within the EU. Arms programs and militarization are not synonymous with promoting democracy; instead, they foster illiberal tendencies and threaten to further erode European democracies from within. Unfortunately, Social Democrats and Greens have largely forgotten this. Yet, it's not for nothing that rearmament has always been one of the central demands of the far-right.

At the same time, Trump's Ukraine initiative opens up a paradoxical possibility: it could defuse the bloody war of attrition in Europe – a war that neither Ukraine nor Russia can win without risking uncontrollable escalation, right up to nuclear catastrophe.

However, Europe must not make the mistake of underestimating Putin's Greater Russian ambitions or his influence on anti-democratic movements in the EU—or of not taking US imperialist rhetoric seriously.

Europe faces a difficult balancing act: it must defend its democracy against external and internal threats, but it must not be drawn into an arms race and escalation that further emboldens authoritarian powers.

An independent European security policy must set clear boundaries against the encroachments of American and Russian geopolitics, but also utilize every opportunity for de-escalation to secure peace and democracy in Europe. Those who want to defend freedom and security through rearmament could end up losing everything.