There is emerging alliance in Europe of farmers and new right-wingers against environmental movement
As midlife crises go, relearning French is probably not a particularly adventurous option, but four days into an intensive language course in the middle of nowhere in rural France teaches you some things about yourself. For example, I had no idea that I am – and probably have always been – a kinaesthetic learner, someone who absorbs information more easily if I am shown the meaning physically rather than reading it.
On a more serious note, when it comes to understanding our European cousins we should acknowledge two factors. One is the durability of the Franco-German alliance. The second is the strength of an emerging alliance of farmers and the new right-wingers against the environmental movement. In what is a classic 21st-century marriage the country and the city are moving in lock step.
And who do they see as their protector? The EU that actually doles out millions of euro to subsidise their farm incomes? No – they regard their protector as Marine Le Pen, the anti-EU right-wing presidential candidate who talks warmly about their traditional values, culture and way of life. The expression “European integration” was invented to really mean friendship between France and Germany. It was decided to travel a slower road than Schuman’s federation idea. However, the EU has been based on a Bonn, now Berlin, axis with Paris.
On top of this, Germany’s outsourcing of its defence to the US will no longer be tolerated in Washington, which means Germany has to stump up for its own army for the first time since the 1930s. With Russian gaining ground in Ukraine this becomes an existential issue for Germany.
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