European Values
On May 9th Ursula von der Leyen visited President Zelensky in Kiev to celebrate “Europe dayâ€. Ukraine used to celebrate that day as “Victory Dayâ€, to commemorate the Soviet victory against fascism. But no more. That memory has been erased as well as all insignia of the Soviet era. Fascist leaders have been rehabilitated and streets have been named after them. The Russian language has been suppressed and history has been rewritten in the service of the current ideology. Opposition parties are banned.
The European Commission President announced:
"Courageously, Ukraine is fighting for the ideals of Europe that we celebrate today".
Ukraine is a fascist state with some liberal democratic window dressing. S o, the same law that outlawed Soviet insignia also banned fascist images. But the numerous examples of Nazi imagery on Ukrainian tanks and uniforms shows this part of the law is for presentation purposes only.
Since the coup of 2014, the fascists have infiltrated the security services and army. It is these people that control the State. When Zelensky was elected on a platform of making peace with the Donbass, he was confronted with the reality of the Ukrainian State and was forced to continue the war. The Russian speaking comedian from a Jewish family is content to be a puppet of Ukrainian fascists and American neo-cons.
But what is happening in Ukraine goes beyond the fortunes of that benighted country. As von der Leyen has said it’s also about European values.
It used to be the case that Fascism—or its more virulent form Naziism—was taboo. When looking at World War Two, the historian had to confront the image of an emaciated Concentration Camp survivor staring at him from behind the barbed wire. When faced with such horrors all analysis became superfluous.
But von der Leyen and Joseph Borrel have broken that taboo. Once again German tanks are rolling across the steppes of Ukraine.
It seems that Europe’s post war anti-Fascism was not so ingrained. The truth is that none of the Allies fought the war to defeat Fascism; still less to protect the Jews.
Britain was hoping that by conceding the Sudetenland to Hitler, and by encouraging the Poles to take an intransigent position in relation to Danzig, that the Nazis would be emboldened to continue the fight against the Soviet Union. Hitler, after all, was an admirer of the British Empire and in Mein Kampf thought of Russia as Germany’s India.
But Stalin trumped the British plan with the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact and the Nazis turned west.
All the players in the conflict acted in the interest of their own State, including de Valera’s Ireland. (And, in that respect, it is interesting to contrast de Valera with our current political leaders. De Valera forged an independent foreign policy in the face of severe pressure from Britain, which considered invading the country, whereas our current leaders can only do the great Western Powers’ bidding. When our President’s wife called for peace negotiations in Ukraine, our political Establishment recoiled in horror.).
But each country’s experience of the Second World War was very different. The Concentration Camps were not in Western Europe and Hitler did not consider the Anglo Saxons—unlike the Slavs—inferior to the Aryan race.
At this year’s victory day speech in Moscow, Vladimir Putin generously acknowledged the contribution of the Americans, the British and the French to the War against Nazi Germany, but in truth the Soviet Union bore the brunt of the Nazi onslaught and therefore the effect on the Russian people was more profound.
The past year has shown how superficial the memory of Fascism is among the Americans and Western Europeans. After almost ninety years, the original failed British plan has now been realised. Fascism is being used as a spearhead to attack Russia and this time there is no Western Front.
All the anti-racism, and the denunciations of anti Semitism, count for nothing. The economic well-being of Europe must be put at risk in order to destroy the Russian State. That is the true meaning of “European values†today.
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