‘If EU is disintegrating, Donald Trump, Russia or Islamic State is not to blame’
EU citizens are the most taxed in the world, they see inflation eating their savings; they are unhappy, Luc Rivet, Editor in Chief, Le Peuple magazine, told RT. Mischael Modrikamen, Belgian lawyer & ‘People's Party’ leader, also contributed his thoughts.
On Tuesday, the President of the European Council Donald Tusk described US President Donald Trump as one of the external threats to the EU, along with China, Russia, and radical Islam.
RT: What do you make of this? Why do you think Tusk sees Trump as one of the biggest threats to the EU?
Luc Rivet: They are clearly panicking – not only Mr. Tusk, who was appalled, by the way, and who puts Russia among the enemies… Well, if Europe is disintegrating, which is, unfortunately, a reality, it is not because of Mr. Trump, it is not because of ISIS; it is because the Europeans don’t believe in it anymore. They don’t deliver good work, neither in Parliament, nor the Council, nor the European Commission, that is clear to all now. We could see the end of the euro this year, and we blame Donald Trump – this is ridiculous.
RT: Why do you think people are becoming anti-establishment and want a change? What is going wrong?
LR: Well, I think the key was the invasion of migrants in 2015-2016. The fact that today in 2017 things are not settled yet. We have no external defense; we have no external borders; you get thousands of people every week in Sicily, coming from Libya. People who are illegals, but that are brought by the navies of Europe that are in the Mediterranean, that are brought to the shores of Europe, and these people become illegals in Europe, and they go everywhere.
So European citizens that are the most taxed in the world are frustrated about this. Mrs. [Angela] Merkel now blames Mr. Trump. But Europeans in Germany, for example, blame more and more Mrs. Merkel for the present situation in Europe. Still today after two and a half years we have no solution to this invasion of migrants. It should have been tackled immediately. This is the first example, but there are many others: we have inflation looming again in Europe. There is no interest in any type of savings accounts for Europeans; they see inflation eating up their savings; they are unhappy, and they don’t see anybody in Brussels taking responsibility. {The political elite] only blame populists and Donald Trump of course.
'EU citizens most taxed in world'
Mischael Modrikamen, Belgian lawyer & ‘People's Party’ leader
RT: What do you make of Tusks statement?
Mischael Modrikamen: First of all, I believe it is a kind of absurd statement from Mr. Tusk. I don’t think that President Trump is a threat. The major threat for the EU is the policy the EU is just following, just taking into account the will and the interest of its own people. The fact is that Mr. Trump doesn’t like the bureaucratic EU, doesn’t like the undemocratic EU, but I want to tell you that most of the Europeans today don’t like it either…
RT: He also went on to say that significant steps have to be taken to try and solve things? What sort of steps, do you think, he means to take?
MM: I have absolutely no idea. There is a kind of panic. In fact, Mr. Trump with his policy and the step he made in this first ten days in office is just challenging the main basic tenant of the EU: globalism, climate, refugees – is doing exactly the reverse of what the EU has been doing for the last 10 or 15 years with all the failure that we know. They do not know how to cope with this new reality. Therefore the panic, therefore also the kind of statement. But I don’t think that they have any plan at this moment, and it is just a simple statement from Mr. Tusk…. The problem is not with Mr. Trump but with Europe itself.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
