MP Sławomir Mentzen, joint leader of the right-wing Confederation party, has backed Donald Trump’s stance against freeloading by Europeans when it comes to defense and security.
Trump is obviously right. What’s the point of defending countries that don’t want to defend themselves? How could he justify sending young Americans to fight for countries that don’t want to fight, that don’t want to arm themselves? Europe must wake up, start arming itself and build its own strength,” he wrote on X.
Trump once remarked that he is not prepared to defend those NATO states that do not pay their dues to the alliance and spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense. He told one of the leaders of a major European state that he would encourage Putin to do what he wants to European states that do not pay their way in NATO.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk pointed to Trump’s words, saying they were a wake-up call for Europe to start investing in its defense. However, he did not indicate if this meant that there should be a European army.
The Confederation leader, Sławomir Mentzen, defended Trump’s thinking; however, some social media users criticized his post, claiming that he was encouraging the U.S. to pull out of Europe and unwittingly making the case for a European army.
The Confederation leader hit back by writing, “I said that Europe must arm itself to defend itself from Russia. Some took that as meaning that I am some kind of agent for Russia, and others that I want an army under Berlin’s command. Both are completely wrong.”
