Europe and the moral re-armament of citizens
Money for new weapons will not be enough.
Nor will the goodwill of governments.
When Senator Claude Malhuret delivered his speech before the French Senate, it sparked a media storm.
This elderly doctor, a former president of Médecins Sans Frontières (hardly a die-hard militarist), is certainly not the first to argue that Putin’s war to reconquer Russia’s imperial space will not stop at Ukraine and that the European Union will have to fight for its own survival.
However, he is among the few who have made it clear that the “immense task” of protecting the Old World will not be accomplished merely through increased investment, greater industrial production, and new command structures.
None of this will be sufficient if Europeans are unable to foster a “moral re-armament.”
If ordinary citizens do not collectively decide that it is right to defend Europe as the homeland of liberal democracy—just as it was envisioned and built after 1945.
(Marco Mondini)