United States | How and why the US has moved away from Europe

Not only have they been ignored in the negotiations that, on their own, began Donald Trump with Vladimir Putin to resolve the war in Ukraine, a conflict on which the future of Europe depends and that will change the global geopolitical board, but have told them without anesthesia that they do not know how to manage, that they are weak and that, above, they are anti -democratic. A direct blow to the heart and pride of European values.

After what happened in the last two weeks, the alliance of the Western powers that was based after World War II would seem to fade, or actually, reconfigure towards a new world order.

Since Trump returned to the White House, he has not rested that he has returned more than reloaded with ever: the threat of tariffs towards almost any country, the hardening of anti -immigration policies, the abandonment of environmental policies and their controversial proposals to ‘depressing’ gaza to turn it into a summer resort in the Middle East, in addition to its expansionist efforts to control Greenland and the Panama Canal, just to name a few.

But there was a great pending issue: the war in Ukraine, a conflict without a solution for almost three years and continues in a desperate stagnation period.

“It is not just an attack on the European Union (EU) but to the liberal international order built after 1945. We are entering a new era where there are no red lines and where all the roads that had been built internationally to resolve conflicts through multilateralism has jumped through the air,” Steven Forti, professor of contemporary history of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​tells El Comercio. “For the Trump administration, the EU is now an adversary,” he adds.

Trump’s call to Putin came with a series of blunt messages to the European Union. Pete Hegesh, the new Secretary of Defense, was two weeks ago in Brussels, at an NATO meeting, and pointed out that the adhesion of Ukraine to the Atlantic Alliance was “unrealistic” as well as the recovery of the territory that has lost to Russia and that the military security of Ukraine must depend on Europeans.

Days later, Vice President JD Vance gave Munich a challenging speech and told European leaders that the threat of Europe is not in Russia or China, “but in the internal threat,” questioning European liberal values ​​and endorsing the extreme right parties that are increasingly popular in the continent.

This was followed by the meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, among American and Russian officials and where there was no chair for Europe or Ukraine, the directo interested.

In order not to be so outlined, the French president Emmanuel Macron summoned a meeting in Paris with the leaders of 11 European countries, which included Germany, Spain and Italy (Meloni was reluctant because the affinity he has with Trump is known and the little chemistry he has with Macron) to discuss the steps to follow. But from the meeting no agreement came out but the divisions in the continent on the militarization and deployment of troops emerged. Macron has advocated for years for a purely European army to stop depending on the United States, but the EU is a block of various speeds and interests (with different economies and a megaburocracy), and such delicate issues cannot be resolved at ‘Trump speed’.

“In Europe there is now a lack of leadership. The only leader who glimpses is Macron, but has several problems within his country. And German Chancellor Scholz has not given the size after the departure of Angela Merkel, ”explains Francesco Tucci, internationalist and teacher of the UPC and the PUCP.

Ideological alignment

But what has happened these weeks does not necessarily show that the United States is no longer interested in Europe. What he no longer wants is to coordinate with progressive governments, and rather encourage the extreme right parties, such as AFD in Germany or national grouping in France. Therefore, Vance’s comments also came when speaking specifically of the German elections this Sunday, an issue that was qualified as “unacceptable interference” by Olaf Scholz.

Without a doubt, it is a tinder on the world stage. “The relationship is not broken, but it is broken. And this is very influenced by the thought of the extreme right in Europe and the US. This ideological tune makes the EU have a coordinated action, because these leaders will resist greater sanctions to Putin and will see the approach with good eyes, ”explains the journalist Ramiro Escobar, international analyst and professor of the PUCP.

As Farah Stockman, columnist of “The New York Times”, points out, “the Trump administration is promoting non -liberal and pro -raging political parties throughout Europe that could undermine the European project from within.”

Forti goes in the same line: “They seek to weaken the European project. What the EU has to do is firmly to be signed by the destruction of the rules of the game. As repeated by the former president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, European institutions have to do something quickly, because the risk is that the EU will become irrelevant. ”

The Italian researcher adds that the community block has to take steps for greater political integration. “You cannot make all decisions unanimously, they have to know how to build a long -term strategy to obtain strategic autonomy in a world that is changing, where multilateralism has weakened. The EU must have its own strategies in the field of industry, new technologies, artificial intelligence. It is a huge challenge. ”

A new world order

The communications of the European Commission – the executive body of the EU – and its president, Ursula von der Leyen, do not cease to repeat that “there cannot be a solution for Ukraine without the involvement of Ukraine or the EU, because the security of Ukraine is the security of the European Union”.

But Trump has another idea. The US president wants to be remembered as the president who ended with a war that seemed to be brought and, above all, wants to pass the Ukraine page leaving the Europeans in charge of their own security to focus on their true obsession: China.