Former Socialist Prime Minister José Sócrates has criticized Europe’s stance at the recent NATO summit as a “pathetic spectacle of subservience” towards President Trump, with only Spanish leader Pedro Sánchez standing apart.
This perspective on the NATO summit in The Hague is expressed in an article José Sócrates published on the Brazilian website ICL Notícias, where he quotes philosopher Immanuel Kant to warn that “paternalism is the most tyrannical regime in the world, as it treats its citizens as children.”
Titled “the summit of voluntary servitude,” José Sócrates states in his article that Europe “satisfied all of the United States President’s whims, agreeing to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP.”
“In other words, it marked the beginning of an arms race on the European continent. However, I believe the worst was not the content but the form. The pathetic spectacle of subservience that characterized the summit,” he asserts.
José Sócrates specifically criticizes NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, referring to him as “that regrettable Dutch politician who obediently follows orders from his masters.”
“The NATO Secretary-General thinks the President of the United States is the world’s daddy and that other countries are merely children who occasionally need to be shown the way. Between dignity and security, Europe has relinquished the former—and it will never achieve the latter without the former,” he argues.
For the former prime minister, in recent history, “perhaps no spectacle is more revealing of Europe’s decline as a political actor.”
“This was the summit of voluntary servitude, to borrow the title of a famous European essay. The most depressing aspect is the argument, used by some, that flattering President Trump might bring advantages to Europe. This argument combines stupidity with humiliation, nothing more,” he believes.
José Sócrates contends that “humiliation only brings more humiliation.”
“Those who humiliate themselves can only expect to be mistreated, not respected. Moreover, this reasoning does not understand American culture. Above all, Americans despise subservience. Europe’s image at this summit is that of a power that has lost respect for its own past,” he advocates.
In The Hague, at the NATO summit, according to José Sócrates, “it was saved” by the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez.
“What dignity. Some bootlickers of President Trump say that Spain has isolated itself. I say that such solitude was of extraordinary beauty, olé,” he adds.
