Is Europe Missing Another Opportunity?

The newly elected President of Argentina, Javier Milei, may be eccentric and hold many radical views. However, on foreign policy issues of relevance, he is positioned as ‘Western’. This is an opportunity that Europe could seize if it were finally to think and act geostrategically. By Stefan Haböck

The libertarian Javier Milei is the new President of Argentina. This has caused great indignation in Europe, where he is described as a ‘right-wing populist’ because fundamental knowledge of political schools of thought has unfortunately been lost. One does not need to be an expert on Argentina, as so many have become in recent days, to know that the Peronist decades have not done the country any good. Naturally, as political movements derived from a military dictator have never brought anything good.

What Europe overlooks in its indignation over the domestic politics of a country whose capital is 11,000 kilometres from Vienna: firstly, Milei was democratically elected. This is in contrast to many of Europe’s other global partners. Furthermore, as radical as many of Milei’s statements are, his foreign policy position is clear: in favour of Ukraine, against joining the China-dominated BRICS alliance with Iran and Saudi Arabia, and less proximity to Russia.

All of this would be of enormous help to Europe. Another country in the ‘Global South’ that wishes to distance itself from authoritarian states. Yet instead of taking advantage of this, accusations are raining down.

While Lula, who flickers erratically through world politics, was still celebrated in Europe, it is now claimed that ‘everything is becoming more difficult, including the Mercosur agreement’. As if EU agreements, the EU’s most important geopolitical lever, ever failed because of the partners. ‘Populism is spreading’, one read, and this did not refer to the Peronists or the regime in Venezuela.

Europe is dependent, yet likes to wag its finger

Europe likes to wag its finger at the world, but cannot (and will not) enforce its values and principles. Completely dependent on the USA for security policy, every four years people stare transfixed at the polls in Iowa, hoping that Trump does not win there.

In the Western Balkans, where nine years of brutal wars and massacres could likewise not be ended by Europe alone and without the USA, non-European powers are gaining more and more influence.

In the Middle East, Europe is a spectator, and internally divided on the matter. Partners such as Turkey or Tunisia insult the paying EU in front of rolling cameras.

China controls the majority of European logistics chains, and conveniently, important European ports as well. Reciprocity? None to be found. In Africa, France has been driven out. Taliban and children of oligarchs travel through the Schengen area, something Kosovars can only dream of. Under the eyes of the EU, 120,000 Armenians are being displaced. By a gas supplier, so nothing can be done.

It would be quite simple: either Europe always acts morally. In that case, it must not smile at the Emir of Qatar, in whose country the Hamas leader resides in luxury. Or it acts geostrategically, in which case it would be more than appropriate to seize the opportunity when someone decides against a further alliance with autocracies. But it is to be feared that geostrategetic thinking will continue to be overshadowed by pure indignation.

Featured image: Casa Rosada, seat of the Argentine President. © European Union 2018 Etienne Ansotte