1. Bad. André Glucksmann said that the fear of "speaking ill of evil", a kind of reverential fear installed in the West, prevents us from recognizing that evil is what founds: that we can agree against evil but hardly in favor of good. "The death of the devil has been greater than the death of God", because it was the door that led to the temptation of innocence. I allow myself this reference because I believe that the future of Europe, which right now seems confused and in loss of authority, requires a certain commitment to mobilize against evil if we do not want to be trapped by the nihilistic delusions - loss of the notion of limits - that have set in motion Trump's United States and Putin's Russia, turning truth and good into a display of complicity between enemies who seemed irreconcilable against what remains of democratic awareness of what is and is not admissible, and that Europe should defend if it does not want to be swept away by the reactionary flood.
Who was first? Trump has brought Putin to his territory because Putin had already made the necessary signals to make the meeting possible. And we have suddenly woken up to a theotechnocratic offensive: politics as the imposition of a higher truth against the democratic boil. The symbolism is in motion. Trump and Putin agree to end the war in Ukraine, which is not the same as making peace. On the contrary, they impose a solution that was born and agreed between them, disregarding democratic forms and seeking theocratic legitimation, with the complicity of the Middle East. Saudi Arabia wants to position itself as a space for conciliation. The whims of theotechnocracy are not questioned and its representatives – Trump and Putin – have decided that they are the ones who will decide the peace and that Ukraine and Europe should do nothing more than sign it. And so it will be done.
Trump sets the pace, Putin adapts. The neo-fascist impulses of the American president are perfect for a sinister character like Putin, who could hardly have expected such legitimacy from his until recently enemy. Washington rescues Russia: a headline that until four days ago would have seemed implausible. The plots of the new world economic powers are connecting and finding in the ex-Soviet world a space for expansion. And Europe, increasingly an endangered rarity, is losing prominence: they believe they do not need it. If it does not react, they will be right. The American president and Putin feel self-sufficient to set the pace by making resentment a virtue and hatred the principle of their discourse.
2. Hate. Europe cannot happen without facing this sinister panorama. André Gluksmann also said it: "Resistance to hatred is the great engine of history." Hatred is the foundation of the authoritarianism of Trump and Putin, who make resentment their banner. And we are as always: too many doubts, too much insecurity, too much burden from the past, too much fear of complicating our lives, at a time when the continent is experiencing the confusion of a transition of era as in the whole world, with many of whose values Europe has made its banner at risk. Responding to the reactionary onslaught is not easy when the extreme right is on the rise and in full harmony with Trump, when the right is beginning to laugh at him and become more radical day by day, and when a good part of the economic power is in tune with the American trend that says that economic freedom and democracy are incompatible. And yet it would be tragic if Europe were to allow itself to be caught up in the delirium of those who have lost all sense of limits, installed in the insensitivity of immeasurable egos.
Emmanuel Macron, a weakened president, displaced from day-to-day governance in France after his resounding electoral failure, is seeking to regain his profile – if only to polish his image on the road to retirement – and is summoning Paris to lead the response to the Russian-American tandem. The result is meager: we will talk about it later. A magnificent attitude when the others are rushing ahead. Only Great Britain and Germany seem willing to take some steps, not exactly disruptive. Macron says he does not want to humiliate Russia. And Sánchez asks for time and calm. But everything is moving very fast. It is about gaining respect. And for the moment Trump and Putin do what they want.
