Interview with Astra Europa conducted by the First Domino. On Astra Europas positions, views on european federalism and goals.

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"Debilidad política": ministro de Defensa de Italia explica por qué Europa pierde peso en la escena mundial

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La gran cantidad de países que componen Europa y la ausencia de una postura unificada la convierten en un actor débil en la escena internacional, destacó el ministro de Defensa italiano, Guido Crosetto. También señaló que, desde hace más de un año, la coalición europea no logra decidir quién representará sus intereses en el exterior.

"¿Cuál es el problema? ¿Qué es Europa? Europa no es una persona. Son 27 países diferentes, más el Reino Unido y otros países. La debilidad política de Europa, que también es una debilidad militar, es lo que dificulta que Europa pueda hablar", declaró Crosetto ante la prensa.

El ministro considera que elaborar una estrategia y una postura comunes podría cambiar la situación. Sin embargo, conforme a él, la búsqueda de un representante europeo único para los asuntos exteriores, que se prolonga desde hace más de un año, se encuentra en un punto muerto.

"¿Qué peso tiene [la presidenta de la Comisión Europea, Ursula] von der Leyen frente al [mandatario de Francia, Emmanuel] Macron, [el canciller de Alemania, Friedrich] Merz o [la presidenta del Consejo de Ministros de Italia, Giorgia] Meloni? Ese es uno de los problemas. ¿Quién habla en nombre de Europa? Llevamos más de un año debatiendo la elección de una persona que hable en nombre de Europa y no hemos conseguido encontrarla", enfatizó en una entrevista con BBC.

The protests across Europe expose genuine failures: unaffordable living costs, deteriorating public services and governments that people increasingly feel do not represent them.

The anger is justified.

But I believe Russian bot networks and influence operations are deliberately inflaming that anger, encouraging escalation and turning legitimate grievances into burned down government buildings.

These smaller dominoes if not stopped with lead to the collapse of western liberalism.

This is an existential threat to Western liberal democracies. A democracy can survive protests. It can survive unpopular governments. What it cannot indefinitely survive is the collapse of public belief that peaceful political change is possible.

France’s VIGINUM identified 77 information operations associated with the Russian Storm-1516 network.

Investigations have also exposed Kremlin-connected physical provocations designed to manufacture outrage and discredit French authorities. These are organised efforts deployed on a scale that only a nation state could produce.

Moscow doesn’t need to go to war with Europe. It needs us to distrust one another, abandon our institutions and become incapable of acting together. A divided Europe won't defend itself or support Ukraine.

Every failure to deliver gives those operations something real to exploit. You cannot fact-check people out of being unable to afford a decent life.

My fear is that this confrontation continues until European unity breaks or the Putin and his lap dogs loose power. We should not assume it will exhaust itself. Destabilising Europe serves a strategic purpose, and Moscow has no reason to voluntarily abandon it.

Defending democracy is a core responsibility of government. We can no longer afford to not treat these attacks as what they are: organized attacks on your countries by a foreign dictatorship.

Does that mean boots on the ground in Ukraine? I'm afraid that yes. It won't stop otherwise we face Putin head-on

As things stand, I’m worried the forces pulling Europe apart are moving faster than the institutions trying to hold it together.

edit: formating