I expected the EU to push back strongly against Donald Trump’s new national security strategy. Not only does it show contempt for the EU and its “weak” leaders, it also targets European citizens and migrants with racist coded messages and thinly veiled Islamophobia. Yet instead of a thunderous defense of the Union’s commitment to human rights and equality, there have been only pale, empty phrases.
Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council, condemned Trump’s plans to boost support for Europe’s far-right parties. But there was no public challenge to the racist logic underlying his argument. Costa, who spoke proudly of his mixed heritage, could have presented a convincing counterargument to the US president’s false premise that Europe is heading for “civilizational erasure” because of migrants and, indirectly, millions of Europeans of color.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, insisted that the best response to the Trump administration’s insults was to stand up for a united Europe, focusing on its strength and taking pride in the EU. There was no reaffirmation of the compelling vision she outlined just two years ago – a vision of an inclusive EU “where it doesn’t matter what you look like, who you love, how you pray or where you were born”.
European political and media ecosystems have helped construct an "imaginary Muslim" who is a suspect and a security risk - never a doctor, nurse, scientist or elected representative.
The truth is that Trump’s alternative reality of a “wok” Europe is laughable. He would feel right at home in today’s EU. Far-right parties are on the rise, and the rhetoric of “defending civilization” – part of the discourse of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory – has spilled from the far-right fringes into the political mainstream. Ursula von der Leyen’s conservative bloc increasingly relies on far-right votes to push legislation through the European Parliament. If Trump were to visit the institutions of “so-white Brussels”, the US president would probably not meet many people of color.
The way the US and the EU deal with unwanted migrants is becoming increasingly similar. The EU may not deploy masked, paramilitary units like ICE to stalk American streets, but its new migration pact tightens asylum procedures, speeds up deportations and expands detention. Many EU countries are calling for additional “innovative solutions”, including greater powers for Frontex, the EU border agency, which has been accused of systemic human rights failures, including complicity in unlawful violent pushbacks. Twenty-seven European states have called for a revision of the European Convention on Human Rights, arguing that migrants’ rights must be balanced with the “security” and “freedom” of Europeans.
All of this plays into Trump’s hands, but it goes against Europe’s own interests. With an aging population and labor shortages across entire sectors, the EU actually needs migrants. The commission has identified shortages in 42 occupations, including construction, transport, agriculture, hospitality, health and social care, that are crucial to Europe’s economic resilience and “strategic autonomy.” So while politicians compete to sound more assertive on borders, no one is saying that many of their governments are, in fact, quietly signing labor cooperation agreements with the global south.
The US president claims that nationalist parties are the victims of censorship, but it is European progressives – especially those who advocate for solidarity and justice for the Palestinians – who are facing restrictions. UN experts have had to tell Germany to stop a persistent pattern of police violence against Palestinian solidarity activists. Meanwhile, in France, a major international academic conference on Palestine was forced to leave the College de France in November after a minister publicly branded the event “activist.”
Those who follow European politics understand that, beyond the political outbursts of moral panic, the EU has perfected a polished, technocratic form of exclusion that relies on directives and regulations, coded language about “European values,” and a security framework that normalizes exemptions from human rights. Sometimes even facts are denied: the lower house of the Dutch parliament refused to discuss a government-commissioned study that found that anti-Muslim discrimination is structurally embedded in society—and that young Muslims increasingly feel excluded.
European political and media ecosystems have helped construct an “imaginary Muslim” who is a suspect and a security risk—never a doctor, nurse, scientist, or elected representative, Dutch socialist and MEP Muhammed Chahim told me. Nothing, not even evidence-based research, is allowed to contradict the dominant narrative.
I wish Europeans of color really had the power that the American president attributes to us. We don't. Many remain marginalized and stigmatized, facing structural discrimination. Yet countless others - far from plotting the downfall of European "civilization" - are working to keep Europe alive and thriving, through their contributions in politics, business, technology, culture, sports, media, medicine, design, transportation, academia, and much more.
The question is whether European leaders - or at least the more responsible ones - will finally speak up. Trump's fantasy of a white, Christian Europe is certainly giving a boost to his European followers, who present Europeans of color through the worn-out prism of migrant "crises", threats to identity and endless integration tests. Those who do not subscribe to this toxic fiction must have the courage to say so publicly and celebrate Europe's diversity.
The text is taken from "The Guardian"
Translation: NB
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