The military and strategic center of gravity in Europe is shifting toward Central and Eastern Europe, with Poland at its center, says French essayist Guy Milliere. He sees Poland as the main European pillar of NATO and the Atlantic Alliance.
“The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is currently almost a complete failure for Putin, but it shows that there is an aggressive, destructive, dictatorial, dangerous power in Europe,” says Milliere in an interview published on Wszystkoconajważniejsze.pl opinion portal.
Milliere, a professor of cultural history at the Paris 8 University and the author of numerous books, notes that illusions about a world without war have been dispelled in Europe, and military spending is increasing.
“In Europe itself, it is evident that clear thinking is on the side of Central European leaders, especially the Polish,” says Milliere.
In his opinion, such clear thinking also exists in Finland and Sweden, with Finland joining NATO and Sweden most likely following in its footsteps.
“This clear thinking also exists in the UK. To a much lesser extent, it occurs in France and Germany,” said the professor.
According to Milliere, French and German leaders still imagine that they can reach an agreement with Putin, and if necessary, concessions will have to be demanded from Ukraine.
Milliere pointed out that Macron visited Moscow multiple times in early 2022 to prevent Putin from starting a war, but he failed. The French president still believes that an agreement with Putin is possible and recently went to China “hoping to influence Xi Jinping to encourage Putin to behave sensibly, but he failed again, as predicted,” emphasized the French conservative author.
He stressed that Germany, through its consistent energy and foreign policy — continued from the Gerhard Schroeder government, through the Angela Merkel cabinet, and finally Olaf Scholz — has become dependent on Russian energy resources.
Professor Milliere said that buying Russia’s resources comes at a high political cost, as seen in Ukraine. He said that “buying resources from Russia is giving money to the enemy.”
The academic notes that while the center of gravity of the continent is shifting eastward in military and strategic terms, it is more complicated in economic and political dimensions, causing tensions between Brussels and Warsaw and “the European Commission’s unrelenting hostility toward Poland.”
“France and Germany will continue to strive to remain the center of gravity in Europe,” he said.
Commenting on Macron’s and the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s recent visit to China, Milliere notes that European leaders went to Beijing in a weak negotiating position and received nothing but an increased dependence of the EU on China.
The French professor claimed that Chinese leader Xi Jinping is an enemy of the West and wants to weaken it by breaking up the European-American alliance, and Macron’s statements, in which he distanced himself from the Taiwan conflict, only serve such plans of the Chinese regime.
