The EU foreign policy chief has declared that “the free world needs a new leader”, as European leaders threw their support behind Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after the stunning White House confrontation between him and Donald Trump.
Leaders from across Europe expressed their solidarity with the Ukrainian leader after the fractious exchange with JD Vance, the US vice-president, and Trump, who claimed he was not “ready for peace” and accused him of “gambling with world war three”.
Although in general the European leaders did not name the US president, their comments late on Friday laid bare the gaping rift between the US and its traditional allies in Europe over the war in Ukraine.
In a social media post Kaja Kallas, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, wrote: “Ukraine is Europe! We stand by Ukraine. We will step up our support to Ukraine so that they can continue to fight back the aggressor.
“Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.”
The only people who ever claimed the Americans were the “leader of the free world” were Americans.
Moat of the rest of us quietly rolled our eyes whenever they called themselves that.
Exactly.
Occasionally one of our leaders would mouth such empty platitudes when we wanted something, but only because the US loves that phrase.
Ukraine is Europe! But can Europe truly lead without U.S. military might? Good article, but lacks deeper analysis of potential consequences.
😺😺🐱🐱
I vote Zelensky
Free world needs a new leader
Don’t worry about the “free world,” just focus on Europe.
But they are talking about the free world, the whole free world.
And just to be clear “free world” is not a synonym for the USA, it means democratic countries in general.
By saying “the free world needs a new leader”, what they mean is, the US can’t be in charge any more, because they aren’t part of the free world right now. So that’s the situation, they’re going to have to step up and focus on more than just Europe.
Why do the Democratic countries of the world need a “leader?” Why is it necessary for one of the democratic countries to “be in charge” of the others? The relationship between the democratic countries of the world - and all countries of the world - should be one of mutual respect and equality. There shouldn’t be a power hierarchy among countries, democratic or otherwise.
We really don’t need such a leader, and in practice don’t have one at all. Usually it is a collision of mutual interests, at best.
Do you know the difference between leadership and mgmt at work?
Any nation that wishes to seek the “leadership” of the EU is free to do so, but nations should also be free to choose autonomy, independence, and self guidance.
I’m with you in spirit, but may I please join Europe?
There’s another union of states right here on our northern border…
It’s there like an application form to fill out? Do I need to write it up in French as well?
They might not want you to call them “states”
It irks me that you have to read two full paragraphs before the name of the EU foreign chief is mentioned while Trump and Vance get mentioned a lot.
Do we really need one?
No. But yes.
Like pretty much every social construct, it only really exists as far as people have faith in it. Money only has value because we blindly assume that the grocery store will accept them. Any agreement only has the value of the belief it will be honoured. Law only has meaning if we believe they’ll be applied.
In any coalition there will be participant members with disparate interests. Someone needs to speak for the whole to generate the faith that the collation really does have alignment (that the coalition truely exists). In turn there must be faith that constituent members really do support the direction-setter, at least in so far that they won’t leave the coalition given internal disagreement.
It’s the “U” in USA. Without a federal government, without a leader, it’s just the SA.
The USA was the de-facto leader of the Western world since about May 8, 1945. I think history will recall that reign ended Feb 28 2025. I’m not sure if it’ll be the EU body directly from here on out, or if it’ll directly be France or Germany who acts in the function of the leader of the free world.
Thats a really long winded way of saying, “No, but there will be one anyways.”
No. It was a long winded way of saying “it’s not strictly necessary from a purely functional standpoint, but it is in reality because humans are mushy and irrational especially in groups”
Fair enough.
A free world cant have a leader…
