"Marco Rubio, the chosen Washington representative this year, is a diplomat, so he softened the Trumpian tone with references to German beer, the Beatles, Dante and the Mayflower. But his speech remained a stern warning that if Europe wanted to continue on its path of civilisational decline, as this US administration sees it, America will not be interested and has different hemispheres on which to focus."
"Yesterday is over, he said, and then spelt out what yesterday meant. Mass migration threatening the civilisational erasure and the continuity of Christian culture, unfettered trade, massive welfare states, weak defences, climate cults, the outsourcing of sovereignty to international institutions, the rationalisation of a broken status quo by people shackled with guilt and shame. Unlike Vance, he did not laud rightwing European populist parties, but he nonetheless wrapped himself in their ideology."
"And yet there were some, like the organiser of the conference, the distinguished German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger, that claimed to be reassured by the conditional offer to join this journey into a new era with Donald Trump. If Europeans were reassured by Rubio, it was, as Mark Leonard, the director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, observed, a classic example of the soft bigotry of low expectations."
An address in Munich softened tone with cultural references while warning that America will disengage if Europe continues on a path of civilisational decline. The perceived causes of decline included mass migration, unfettered trade, expansive welfare states, weak defences, climate cults, and outsourcing sovereignty to international institutions. The rhetoric aligned with rightwing populist ideology without formal endorsements and presented a conditional offer to join a new era under Trump. European reactions ranged from reassurance among a few figures to a broader hardening of opposition and anxiety about a transatlantic split.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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