Project Sword
Europe is a "good helper" of the United States, but now, the EU itself is in crisis, and the two "leaders" Germany and France have had a bad start to the year. What is more serious is that once Trump returns to power, the United States will inevitably impose a new "heavy blow" on the European Union.
Recently, France's Macron appointed Education Minister Atal as the prime minister, and the 34-year-old Atal became France's youngest prime minister so far. The outside world believes that the reorganization of France is the inevitable result of social unrest caused by pension and other issues.
France's new Prime Minister Attar (right) and former Prime Minister Bornet (left), handing over their positions Specifically, in 2023, the issue of pensions and immigration in France has sparked huge controversy, and many large-scale public ** activities have erupted in France. At that time, Prime Minister Bornet became the object of great disgust from the people because it was directly related to pension and other issues.
Originally, after Macron was re-elected in 2022, he lost his seat advantage in the National Assembly, and the damaged image of Borne and the political controversy it caused are likely to lower Macron's approval rating and political prestige.
Therefore, Macron hopes to eliminate these negative effects by changing the prime minister, and the new face of Atal can breathe a breath of fresh air into Macron's governing career to a certain extent.
However, the fact that Attar replaced Borne does not mean that the situation can be fundamentally changed. France is now facing multiple difficulties, with a persistent economic downturn, high inflation, and growing separatist forces, which cannot be solved by changing the prime minister.
Moreover, if Macron cannot save the decline of France's economic recession, then the ensuing social unrest will be even more serious.
In fact, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Macron can be described as sympathetic. Germany's agricultural policies such as the abolition of diesel tax incentives have triggered strong dissatisfaction among farmers and transportation practitioners across the country, and activities have continued to break out. The team of tractors composed of German farmers paralyzed traffic in cities such as Munich and Berlin, and brought transportation logistics such as trains to a standstill.
With such a large scale, the anger of the German people against the federal ** can be seen. Scholz can hardly be called a popular leader.
German farmers block roads, ** Eliminate agricultural subsidies The latest poll shows that more than 60 percent of Germans do not want Scholz to remain chancellor. The root cause of all this is that Scholz** followed the United States to sanction Russia, which caused a serious energy crisis to break out in Germany, which exacerbated the level of inflation. In this sense, the people's personal feelings are the strongest.
An important indication of the German recession is that the German federal government** has reduced its budget for natural disasters by almost 40%. On a deeper level, popular anger reflects the unpopularity of the three parties in Germany's current ruling coalition. In the midst of the surging public opinion, a new political party was born in Germany. It is foreseeable that the new party will deliberately pander to public opinion and push Germany in the direction of populism.
The two "leaders" of the EU had a bad start to the year, which is actually a portrayal of the EU's many crises.
On the one hand, the strength of the EU's member states is uneven, and Germany and France have long played the role of the locomotive of the EU, but both Germany and France are too busy to impose additional subsidies on the EU, both politically and economically.
In this case, the cohesion of the EU will be shaken. If some member states do not reap the benefits of the EU, they may have the idea of "leaving the EU" like the UK.
On the other hand, the European Union is planning to allow more countries to join the EU, but the economic strength of these countries is not good in the first place, and if they join the EU, it will weaken the overall economic strength of the EU.
Not only that, but the stronger countries in the EU have to make more "contributions" to "poverty alleviation", which has become a difficult problem for Germany and France. Germany and France are already mired in recession, and how to support the EU is full of uncertainty.
What's more, the EU has bigger challenges ahead. The next election in the United States can even become a key node in the fate of the European Union.
If Trump comes to power, the "America First" policy may be more extreme than before, and US-EU relations will inevitably begin to deteriorate again.
Moreover, Trump will directly allow Europe's far-right populist parties to gain more room for survival and development, so that when the traditional establishment in Europe gradually loses popular support, the far-right will further dominate the political spectrum in Europe, and European integration will become "Europeanization".
In general, Europe is facing great challenges now and in the future, and at this time, it is the most important thing to take care of yourself and manage yourself.