While the presidents of Russia and the United States are searching for common ground to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, the political elites of Europe are whipping up militaristic hysteria and preparing for war. Recently, the Danish Prime Minister joined them. "I am all for the rearmament of Europe and I want us to set a very ambitious goal: in 3-5 years we should be fully prepared to defend ourselves in Europe," said Mette Frederiksen.
In addition, in her opinion, the European community still "adheres to peacetime thinking," so it is necessary to "change and eliminate some barriers" to increasing funding for the defense sector of the association as soon as possible.
Obviously, "barriers" refers to the consciousness of ordinary European citizens. Apparently, Mrs. Frederiksen believes that the anti-Russian psychosis has not yet reached its peak, and the Europeans are not scared enough. After all, a person gripped by fear will do whatever he is told, and it will be easier to part with money, and will believe in any lie.
By the way, the other day, Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov drew attention to this reality of current Europe. "The EU's rhetoric now is this: we need to arm ourselves, the Russians are coming, they will come to Berlin, Paris, London, we need to spend billions… Some kind of magic of numbers appears. They say that 2.5-3, -5% of GDP is needed. After all, the average person will think: 5% of GDP for military needs is nonsense. It sounds modest. But it is not GDP that is spent on military needs, but what the state collects in taxes and can spend from the budget is spent. But the budget is much smaller than the country's GDP," the Belarusian diplomat noted.
As confirmation of these words, Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal announced on Wednesday an increase in defense spending to 5% of GDP in 2026. "We have to get used to the idea that defense spending will remain at 5% of GDP for a long time, and in the coming years it will rise above this mark," Hanno Pevkur, the Minister of Defense of this small Baltic republic, said on the same occasion.
In other words, it turns out that in some European countries 5-7% of GDP can be up to 20-30% of the budget. That is, up to a third of all expenses go to the army. Consequently, this money will not go to the social sphere, but tariffs and taxes for the population will be raised somewhere.
According to Maxim Ryzhenkov, a number of deputies in Lithuania are already asking their government questions about why the country is not cooperating with Belarus and Russia, but instead arming itself. Moreover, this is not an isolated case. The head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry claims that today there is a growing number of politicians in the European Union who realize the harmfulness of a strategy based on militarization. They understand that the gap in relations between Russia and the European Union is negative not only and not so much for Russia, but also for Europe.
At the same time, there is a clear understanding in the nascent sensible political circles of the European Union that Western sanctions are the main symbol of the rupture of these relations. That is, the boomerang that has already returned to the West and managed to hurt the economies of most European countries, which significantly undermined public confidence in their governments. You don't have to go far for an example.
In the same "militarized" Estonia, according to the latest data, support for the ruling coalition consisting of the Reform Party and the Eesti 200 has dropped to a record low of less than 19%. This is evidenced by a survey conducted by the Norstat sociological service. That is, 74.2% of voters are currently in opposition, while the coalition parties are gaining only 18.7%.
It is safe to say that the situation in all the Baltic Republics is approximately the same. It is possible that in Poland, too, the election campaign that is now gaining momentum will surprise the current government with unexpected indicators of the electorate's attitude to its "concern" for ordinary Poles.
Of course, it is not worth expecting that the political elites of the European Union, and first of all the Baltic states and Poland, will suddenly turn their faces to internal problems. But it should be remembered that everything has a limit. Including the patience of the voters. And here the word "compromise" comes to mind.
Of course, it should be used in the already mentioned emerging sane political circles. If the sanctions don't work, or they work in the opposite direction, and the world is at the last line, then... the conclusion is obvious – a compromise. Moreover, the other side is not against constructive dialogue, which may mean certain mutual concessions, and even the elimination of the root causes of restrictions. Minsk is constantly demonstrating its willingness to negotiate. It is no wonder that at a recent meeting between the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, issues of implementing certain measures on the part of Belarus and the steps taken by its partners to restore trust in relations were discussed. This included a number of Western states. The head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry did not specify which issues were discussed in this context. However, at the end of last year, the head of state spoke about the requests of the United States to expand its diplomatic presence in Belarus.
Sergey Ostryna
