Ah, Europe, this bastion of advanced thought, land of innovation and progress… or not. If we follow President Macron’s mantra, a “new reactionary international” would be emerging. But make no mistake, dear readers, the enemy is not where he says he is. No, the true reactionary international, the one who rolls back progress and closes the doors to the future, does not have the face of a brilliant and megalomaniacal billionaire. It has the banal character of a bureaucrat through whose fault, as we learn from the Financial TimesEuropean car manufacturers, already exhausted, could have to pay billions of euros to Chinese electric vehicle companies in the form of carbon credits to compensate for the pollution they emit. Or that of a legislator who controls and restricts artificial intelligence even before major European players emerge in this field.
“Progressives”: what a great label! The reality? They are the real reactionaries, the crayfish of our time. As Flaubert said so well in his Dictionary of preconceived ideas: “Crayfish: Walk backwards. Always call reactionaries crayfish.” And who better than the European Union and its delusional policies to illustrate this backward march?
Policies born from the environmentalist movement, from those right-thinking people convinced that progress is evil incarnate, nature perfect as it is, and any human intervention, a heresy. They do not see that the world is a race for green technologies, the rules of which are based on brutal power relations. While Europe boasts about its CO2 quotas and its recycling initiatives, China and the United States are investing in the real technologies of tomorrow. Europe is preaching, hoping that the others will follow.
An inflationary effect
The European peoples are grumbling, for the moment at the ballot boxes, giving more and more votes to the extremes. Because this beautiful world, under the guise of saving the planet, sacrifices the purchasing power of the middle classes in a continent made by and for the middle classes. The EU, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that the best way to combat climate change is to increase the cost of living for citizens: what do you mean, you can’t afford a water pump? heat or an electric car made by Elon Musk? And they continue to scold, the Europeans, to the delight of reactionaries of all stripes, green, brown, red, illiberal to the last degree. They growl all the more as the impact of their action on global climate change diminishes. Because, let’s be clear, neither China nor the United States are following these pious European recommendations. Nevermind ! Let’s go further, let’s continue: heading towards 2040 and a 90% reduction in emissions in the Union. Yes, this is the hot topic in Brussels…
The real reaction is one that slows down innovation, ignores geopolitical realities and penalizes the most vulnerable. Modern reactionaries, these crayfish fans of reverse propulsion, are those who, under the pretext of saving the planet, plunge us into stagnation, even economic and social regression, by lulling themselves with the illusion of a global impact.
It is not with quotas and taxes that Europe will change the world, but by waking up, recognizing that technological progress and innovation are the real keys to a sustainable future. In the meantime, we continue to pay more for less freedom, while watching our neighbors race towards the future. “Hell is other people”? No, Jean-Paul. Raymond was, once again, right. With one nuance: “Europe is not a great power, it will not be one anytime soon, and it knows it.” In truth, she no longer knows because, through her demonstrated virtue, she ended up convincing herself that she was right. The proof? She is “progressive”. Understood ?
Cécile Maisonneuve is founder of Decysive and advisor to the Ifri Energy and Climate Center
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