NATO summit: committing to 5%… of dignity

The disgraceful attitude of European leaders

Helicopter view from the beach of Scheveningen

The waltz of the helicopters has stopped. I think I’m going to miss them. Through complains or through admiration, the NAVO summit was something special. In this early summer day, the Scheveningse coast, the littoral district of The Hague, was briefly the center of the world. At one million euros a minute, that’s all we could afford.

To the exceptions of the few shop owners unfortunately located around the World Forum, who had to close for the week, for the rest of us, it’s business as usual.

Except for the detours we have to do to go places. Except for the police everywhere.

Except for the helicopters and the navy boats.

Our leaders are weak, our leaders are afraid, our leaders have become overpaid influencers depending on their audience and their sponsors.

My partner point out their model, what their types are, which radar is on the top, how to recognise them, we grab our binoculars and we watch them circling in the stormy Dutch sky.

Tuesday morning, riding my bike home from the ophtalmolog, one convoy passed on the deserted road, escorted by motorbikes and police vehicles. I wondered which of those self-importance inflated leader it is? Macron? Starmer? What are the names of the other ones already? Who cares…

Tuesday evening one of my fellow said he saw Trump. He waved. People waved at Trump. Why didn’t anyone think about mooning him? You know, since he said “everybody was kissing his ass”, to show him he could kiss ours…

King Donald is naked and while he is gloating that he has the most beautiful outfit the world has ever seen and that he has a better taste than everyone, than the whole world really, our leaders bow down, praising the quality of the fabric.

The NATO summit could have been another overpriced gathering leaders are accustomed to. But this one was different. This one smelled like rotten eggs, this one left you nauseous and disgusted.

It started with Mark Rutte, former prime minister, noticeably known for cutting military spending under his term, praising Trump for roughing us up in paying 5%, into doing our part. Really? I thought it was the war raging at our eastern border who woke us up into sizing up our military spending? The reality is that EU spending has been raising) steadily first then exponentially since 2014, when the Russian neighbour started showing signs of expansion again. There’s a reason why Poland spend more than the United States in terms of GDP percentage. And it has nothing to do with Trump threats.

Rutte wasn’t the only one “doing business through flattery and praise”, to quote Deborah Haynes from Sky News. Pleasing Trump was more important than the actual threats to be dealt with.

King Donald is naked and while he is gloating that he has the most beautiful outfit the world has ever seen and that he has a better taste than everyone else here, than everyone else in the whole world really, our leaders bow down, praising the quality of the fabric.

The summit ended today. Western leaders crawled back to their countries leaving behind them a stinking trail left by the putrefaction of their respectability.

And we’re watching the whole circus with dismay and incredulity.

It is demeaning. It is degrading. It is disgusting. It makes them look pathetic. No matter your political flavour.

If you’re a Trump supporter, you will look with spite to this so-called world elite, relegated to the rank of low-life sycophants. If you’re a Trump detractor, you will have the exact same reaction.

Our leaders are weak, our leaders are afraid, our leaders have become overpaid influencers depending on their audience and their sponsors. 5%, is not so much the spending they’ll impose on their tax payers than what is left of their dignity.

Trump is strong with the weak ones and weak with the strong ones. Mathematically, that makes him weak too. Our leaders just gave him ammunitions to be even more insufferable. They enabled a bully.

The summit ended today. Western leaders crawled back to their countries leaving behind them a stinking trail left by the putrefaction of their respectability. What will become of us, stuck between the populists rock and useless politicians hard place.

Today, for the very first time, hopelessness has tainted my mind. Thinking of my daughter, peacefully sleeping upstairs, I’m painfully taking the measure of my powerlessness in changing the dire course our world is taking.