Vladimir Putin is a “hostile neighbor” and, to discourage an attack on the European Union, it is necessary to regain to obtain “peace with strength”. Ursula von der Leyen has pronounced a tough speech to the plenary of the European Parliament in Strasbourg to justify the need for Rearm Europe, the plan presented last week by the President of the Commission, which aims to mobilize up to 800 billion in the blockade to increase the expenses for the defense.
It serves undernnantly in defense
“We need a surge in European defense. And we need it now,” said the popular German, according to which “it is time to build a European defense union that guarantees peace on our continent through unity and strength”.
“We need it first of all because of the situation in Ukraine. There is the urgent need to fill the gaps in military supplies in Kiev and to provide Ukraine solid security guarantees”, continued Von der Leyen, underlining, however, that this “moment of the rendering yield does not only concern Ukraine, but all Europe and the safety of the entire continent”.
This is because “Putin has shown over more and several times that he is a hostile neighbor. You can’t trust him, he can only be discouraged”, and to do it Europe must arm himself, because “we know that Russia’s military complex is overcoming our”.
Von der leyen quotes De Gasperi
Von der Leyen also mentioned Alcide De Gasperi to justify the need for his plan to re -enter Europe. “Alcide De Gasperi said: ‘We don’t only need peace among us, but to build a common defense. It is not about threatening or conquering, but of discouraging any attack from the outside, moved by hatred against a united Europe. This is the task of our generation'”, said the popular German, citing the former president of the Italian Council, founder of Christian democracy and considered one of the founding fathers of the EU. “This is the moment of Europe. And Europe will be up to par,” said Von der Leyen.
The plan
Last week the President of the Commission presented the Rearm Europe plan, to re -enter Europe, which proposes, among other things, a new European tool to grant loans for armaments with a ‘fire power’ of 150 billion financed by new securities issued by Brussels and to exclude the costs for defense from the counting of the deficit for the purpose of the stability pact. The plan received the ok from the heads of state and government gathered last Thursday in an extraordinary European Council.
A “coalition of willingness”: in Ukraine the first test of the European army
The new instrument will be called Safe (Security Action for Europe), and according to what is explained in Strasbourg from von der Leyen its loans “could focus on some areas of strategic skills selected by the air defense to the drones, from the strategic qualifications to the cyber”. In addition, he added, “these loans should finance purchases from European producers, to help strengthen our defense industry” and contracts “should be multi -year, to give the industry the predictability he needs”.
The five -star protest
Deputies, senators and MEP of the 5 Star Movement, together with President Giuseppe Conte, are gathered in front of the European Parliament of Strasbourg, with a banner that reads “Basta money on weapons”, to protest against the Rearmeu plan. The MEP Danilo Della Valle then symbolically delivered in the classroom, in the empty bench previously occupied by Von der Leyen, a European flag sewn with that of peace, claiming that the president “will be remembered as the one that has betrayed values and democracy”, and that “Europe without peace is dead”.
