The European Left Facing a Historic Challenge

What challenges for Europe caught between two neo-fascist imperialisms of Trump and Putin? Why does the future of the European Union depend primarily on its ability to help Ukraine liberate itself from the Russian invader? What are the responsibilities of the European left in this new situation?

My intervention does not claim to provide complete answers to the questions posed, which are difficult and require collective elaboration. These are therefore just a few ideas to initiate our reflection.

I.

▪ Trump is even worse than Neville Chamberlain after the capitulation to Hitler in Munich in 1938, as noted by British historian Timothy Garton Ash in The Guardian. At least Chamberlain was trying to prevent a major European war, whereas Trump is proceeding within 24 hours to a complete and brutal reversal of alliances in the midst of war. This is direct support for Putin. The Trump presidency is simply writing off Ukraine as a loss. And by the same token also the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (primarily Moldova and Romania), the Baltic states, the Scandinavian countries (particularly Finland) - directly threatened by Putin, who openly proclaims his fantasy of reconstituting the colonial empire of the “Russian world” not only within the borders of the former Soviet Union, but also those of the former tsarist empire.

▪ All this with the abandonment of Europe to Russian imperialism in the worst possible way - let us emphasise it once again: in the midst of war, and in a typically colonialist manner. The neo-fascist Trump-Vance-Musk trio wants to bring European countries to their knees, in a situation of neocolonial dependence on the USA. They want to transform them into executors and guardians of the “pax americana” in Ukraine. Indeed, Trump would like Europe to send its troops there, but not America... Odious blackmail.

▪ All this to have free rein in the Middle East and Asia, facing China, and aided by his new ally, Putin. Trump aims to take possession of the mineral and fossil resources of Ukraine, but also of Russia. In alliance with Putin, promising this war criminal the immediate lifting of sanctions, a real last-minute oxygen tank for a faltering Russian economy, which economists predict will collapse in a few months.

▪ Through an infamous lie and a propagandist pirouette, Trump has just accused Ukraine of being the culprit in this war, not Putin the aggressor. This is a repetition and legitimisation of all the typically Stalinist disinformation of Kremlin propaganda.

II.

▪ Europe is now obliged to deepen and broaden its integration. Or else become dependent on the neo-fascist international that is being formed around the Trump-Putin axis.

▪ And thus to return to what are called its “values”, and to defend them tooth and nail: namely, first and foremost, the struggle for peace, democracy, freedoms, gender equality, anti-racism, the fight against all forms of discrimination, protection of the environment, the right of small and medium-sized peoples to self-determination, etc. The Trump-Putin axis and the fascist international are in the process of destroying the entire progressive heritage of the post-Second World War period, built in response to Nazi barbarism.

▪ But to do this, Europe finds itself at a historic turning point: to once again become a genuine alternative to this Trumpian-Putinian fascist international that is already spreading in France, Italy, Germany, and Hungary, Europe must as quickly as possible abandon its neoliberal doxa of the “free and undistorted market”, of austerity, of every man for himself, of the law of the strongest, and begin to build a policy of common goods, of public health, education, transport, and mobility services, of upward harmonisation of wage, social, environmental, and democratic standards, of elimination of unemployment, etc.

▪ Europe must also defend tooth and nail the right of peoples, all peoples, to self-determination. The Ukrainian and the Palestinian.

▪ In other words, Europe must be able to offer its citizens and the whole world a perspective of a different society, desirable, humane, social, democratic, ecological. Only in this way can it counter the demolishers Trump, Putin, Musk, Milei, Meloni, Orban and many others.

▪ And so it must move towards more federalism, pooling of resources, massive common investments, catching up in the poorest regions. It is not normal for federalism to be identified only as a right-wing idea. The left has made a mistake in having abandoned this theme to the right, and should take back the initiative in this area as well as an important element in developing a policy of international solidarity, contrary to a national retreat of each country into itself.

▪ This is the only way to overcome the centrifugal forces that are in the process of dislocating it from within, which is what the neo-fascists, Putin, and now Trump are counting on. They will do everything to pit European countries against each other to dismantle the European Union.

▪ And if by misfortune, France tips over in the next elections, then with all this international fascist friendly society that is taking shape, it will be all of Europe that will tip over. It is the ecologist Marine Tondelier who said this the day before yesterday, and she is absolutely right.

▪ And if the AfD in Germany and/or the RN in France come to power, then it will be the end of the European Union, its break-up or its neocolonial submission.

III.

▪ And so Europe must also mutualise the armed forces. Devote military budgets not to selling arms to all the worst dictatorships in the world - no! We must stop arms exports to Israel, to Saudi Arabia, and to other despotic regimes, and redirect them to deliver them to the Ukrainian people, who are fighting for their very survival as a nation, as an independent country.

▪ Not to intervene there with our armies - no! The Ukrainian people know perfectly well how to fight and defeat Putin - provided they are duly helped, instead of being betrayed and sabotaged by a delinquent billionaire like Trump. But to intensify, multiply the military and financial aid to Ukraine - aid which must be disinterested and not for the purpose of enriching oligarchs from the West and East.

▪ If interposition forces were to prove indispensable against Putin, then it would have to be under the auspices of the UN, the blue helmets. So Europe should promote right away, without delay, a real thorough reform, expected for years, of the UN. We must start by eliminating once and for all the paralysing, colonial system of veto in the Security Council of the five “great powers” that are disputing the sharing of the planet and its resources. These resources must belong to the peoples who live on the lands concerned, and not to a few billionaires like Trump or Putin. The UN must restore the central role of its General Assembly of 193 member states, with the basic democratic principle - one country, one vote. And here too, Europe has an essential role to play, by allying itself, for example, with the countries of the South to impose this crucial reform of the global governance of peoples!

▪ But Europe must also create the Armed Forces of Europe, as proposed and called for by President Zelensky in his historic speech at the Munich Security Conference a week ago. As a common defence army, a deterrent against Putin (and Trump), not as a new army of aggression and plundering of other peoples.

IV.

▪ All of this poses enormous challenges for all the left-wing forces in Europe. Enormous but exciting challenges. And possible to meet, provided we want to and give ourselves the means. We are at one of those historic moments when the left, particularly in the West, can and must rid itself of the dross of the past, of its paralysing sectarian flaws, of its nationalisms and populisms called “left-wing”. The left must act in a united way to oppose the neo-fascist wave, but at the same time by advancing a project for a different Europe, democratic, social, ecological, with the freedom and independence of Ukraine as its truly internationalist banner. We must create something that could be called, following the example of the French left, a New Popular Front of the European Left.

▪ One of its axes should be the central place that must now be given to the left-wing forces of Ukraine, other Central and Eastern European countries, the Balkans, the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, as well as the pro-Ukraine sectors of the democratic and left-wing Russian opposition. We must put an end to a Western-centred left.

V.

▪ Ukraine’s application for membership of the European Union, already particularly pressing since the great democratic movement of the Maidan in 2013-2014 and the annexation of Crimea and part of the Donbass, has now become an immediate, strategic, existential issue for the Ukrainian people. Let us add that the future of the European Union itself will depend on the ability of the European Union and the countries that make it up to respond in a united and determined way to this historic challenge.

▪ It is also a very great challenge for the whole European left. For twenty years, that is, since the halt in the mid-2000s of the so promising altermondialiste process of the European Social Forums (ESF), the European left has been sorely lacking an international orientation and coordination, for a different Europe - social, ecological, democratic, anti-racist, welcoming to refugees, defending the right to self-determination and independence of threatened and aggressed peoples. To such an extent that it has become one of the causes - not the only one but the main one - of the development within the Western left of sectors advocating positions openly hostile to Ukraine, to its membership of the EU. Protectionist, nationalist orientations, very close on the Ukrainian question to those of the extreme right of which Putin is the champion. This is clearly seen when a part, a growing part, of the left-wing MEPs vote with the extreme right of the hemicycle against resolutions on aid to Ukraine in the European Parliament.

▪ Now, it is without delay that Ukraine, a country that has been attacked precisely because it wanted to enter the EU and is asking to be protected, should be accepted. But while at the same time beginning to regulate social, wage and environmental standards by the EU and member states, in order to begin implementing a policy of upward harmonisation of these standards from the outset.

▪ This is a very delicate problem and not at all easy. But the Western left must discuss it and work together with the Ukrainian left and that of other Central and Eastern European, Scandinavian and Balkan countries to seek adequate solutions together in this dramatic and unprecedented situation.

▪ This is why also the trade unions of the EU countries and the Ukrainian trade unions have an enormous role to play in fighting together the neoliberal policies applied by capitalists in the West and East, to relocate production to countries where wages are lower. Joining the EU would allow Ukrainian and Western workers to fight together for. For example, around demands such as “Equal pay and social benefits for equal work”, for the cancellation of the Ukrainian debt and many other common objectives.

VI.

▪ We must convene a new European Social Forum! To discuss all this, but also to establish a European coordination of the left. In Ensemble, we have already proposed this several times over the past three years, unfortunately without much echo. The majority of former leaders of the altermondialiste movement - not all fortunately, but the majority - remain silent, are on campist or even openly Putinist positions (as in Italy, Greece, or Latin America), and are disinterested in the peoples of the central and eastern part of Europe.

▪ The campists will probably align themselves with the Trump-Putin axis, and the Putinists of course too. This is today an important line of demarcation within the European left.

▪ To our first call at the end of February 2022, a few days after the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the internationalist sectors of the European left began to meet and very quickly resulted in the creation of the European Network of Solidarity with Ukraine, the RESU/ENSU. Now we need to go further.

1. Three European events for the defence of Ukraine, on this 3rd anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion, will be held in Brussels on 26-27 March: the conference organised at the European Parliament at the initiative of Scandinavian and Portuguese MEPs, with the participation of activists from the Ukrainian social movement; the conference and workshops organised by the European Network of Solidarity with Ukraine, also with the participation of Ukrainian left-wing organisations; and a meeting organised by the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation. We must of course participate in the debates that are bound to take place there on how the European left can decisively increase its support and aid to Ukraine, and more broadly how it can already lead social, democratic, and environmental struggles, all together.
2. We should then bring together all the trade union, associative, and political left forces in Europe that support Ukraine, for example around June, to discuss the possibilities of preparing a European Social Forum towards the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026.

VII.

▪ These will only be the first steps towards the rebirth of an internationalism and altermondialisme, which some on the left have forgotten or disfigured, but first steps that are indispensable for moving forward. For only in this way can we begin to lay the foundations for a genuinely left-wing policy of building a new Europe as an alternative to neoliberalism and the return of fascism, together in the East and West.

▪ We are in a situation not identical but analogous to that of Europe facing the Spanish Republic’s fight against Francoist fascism, supported by Hitler and Mussolini. With this difference that the Munich betrayal of 1938 is already here, since two months.

▪ It is the Trump-Vance-Musk presidency. If Europe does not manage to pull itself together and reorient itself towards a progressive policy, and if progressive forces in Russia and the USA do not reorganise to remove the neo-fascists from power in these two countries, then it is very likely that Europe will go straight towards a new European and world conflagration.

Thank you for your attention.

20 February 2025

Stefan Bekier - former activist of the left opposition in Poland, activist of the European Network of Solidarity with Ukraine (RESU/ENSU), member of Ensemble!

Three supplements from 11 March 2025

▪ I would like to draw attention to these very interesting reflections by two parliamentarians from the Danish Red and Green Alliance, Jakob L. Ruggard, member of the Danish parliament, and Per Clausen, MEP in the European Parliament from the same formation. Under the title “The failure of the United States in Ukraine and Europe demands new offensive solutions from the left”, they say among other things:

“Europe is surrounded by offensive and far-right superpowers with Russia on one side and the United States on the other. There is no other solution than the rapprochement of Europe and the Nordic region. But it is also an opportunity for the left - because Europe’s security must also be ensured by freer, greener, more equal and safer societies.” https://entreleslignesentrelesmots.wordpress.com/2025/02/27/lechec-des-etats-unis-en-ukraine-et-en-europe-exige-de-nouvelles-solutions-offensives-de-la-part-de-la-gauche/

▪ We should also point out here two recent contributions by Hanna Perekhoda, a Ukrainian historian from the Donbass, researcher at the University of Lausanne and activist in the Ukrainian left-wing movement Sotsialnyï Roukh (Social Movement).

The first, “How to finance European defence (and how not to do it)”, published in English on her Facebook account. Extract:

“The left must reject the false choice between social justice and national security. Security must not come at the price of reduced pensions or health spending, but must be ensured by fair contributions from billionaires and multinationals. The left must fight for tax justice, removing opportunities for tax fraud that benefit companies and taking action against tax havens, including Switzerland. No European country can defend itself alone. Instead of each nation massively increasing its own military budget, the EU should strengthen its collective security mechanisms. Energy security must be seen as part of the military strategy: by reducing dependence on Russian fossil fuels, we can prevent future economic blackmail from that country. Above all, the left must urgently press for the confiscation of Russian state assets. Delaying this decision for fear of the reaction of financial elites only encourages aggressors.”

The second is an interview given to the VoxEurope site under the title “The struggle for freedom in Ukraine is intimately linked to the global struggle against the rise of fascist forces”, in which Hanna says, among other things:

"... Seen from the inside, the EU can be perceived as a project where market logic takes precedence over social justice; where decisions are often made behind closed doors; and where the interests of major economic powers such as Germany impose their priorities. In this context, it is not surprising that some see the EU as an obstacle to be got rid of.

But for European countries that are not part of the EU, and particularly for Ukraine, it embodies something different. “Europe” represents above all an aspiration, an idea of a future where the rule of law, individual freedoms, and a certain level of prosperity prevail. What is less obvious for Western Europe is that here the EU embodies an alternative to an authoritarian and oppressive model, a model that Russia imposes on its neighbours by force.

Thus, for EU citizens, it is primarily an economic project. But for those who are not part of it, the EU is primarily a cultural and civilisational project. Whether they admire or hate it, its supporters and opponents outside the Union treat it as a primarily political force. Russia, for that matter, is explicit in this regard: since at least 2013, it has treated the EU not as an economic competitor, but as a geopolitical and ideological rival.

This dimension became even more evident in 2014, when Ukrainians literally gave their lives to defend the ’European’ future of their country. It was an act that many Europeans viewed with incomprehension, if not condescension or pity. Yet for these protesters, ’Europe’ was not an economic space, but a symbol of dignity and freedom."

▪ Finally, it is not useless to recall here the paragraph concerning the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the programme of the New Popular Front, which remains entirely relevant, but which some on the left, in their recent statements, seem visibly to want to forget... This “legislative contract” was adopted in France in June 2024, on the eve of the early legislative elections, by four parties: the Ecologists, La France Insoumise, the French Communist Party and the Socialist Party, with the support of Place Publique, Génération.s GES, GRS, MRC, LRDG, L’engagement, GDS, PEPS, Révolution écologique pour le vivant (REV), Allons enfants, ADES, Nouvelle Donne, La Jeune Garde, Union démocratque bretonne (UDB), ESNT and L’APRES. We quote this paragraph in full:

"Defending Ukraine and peace on the European continent

To defeat Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression, and to make him answer for his crimes before international justice: to defend unwaveringly the sovereignty and freedom of the Ukrainian people and the integrity of its borders, through the supply of necessary arms, the cancellation of its external debt, the seizure of the assets of oligarchs who contribute to the Russian war effort within the framework permitted by international law, the sending of blue helmets to secure nuclear power stations, in an international context of tensions and war on the European continent and to work for the return of peace."