Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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So in a completely unsurprising turn of events Belgium has to follow strict EU budget cut rules.
EXCEPT FOR DEFENSE SPENDING. Which can be kept outside of the entire budget. For four more years.
So for four more years we can spend whatever we want on defense. But have to do budget cuts all around.
In four years we have elections. And with budget cuts done by neolibs there is a chance of getting some sort of left wing government then due to public outrage. Which in turn has no spending room because then defense spending gets taken into budget.
What do you think the situation in the EU is gearing up towards in the next 4 years? At some point something has to budge. If I have a right read on it, the further right parties in EU countries aren’t super thrilled with the defence spending, further deindustrialisation, and worsening relations with Russia regarding Ukraine and the energy crisis.
I haven’t seen much that gives me hope that the left would be able to capitalise on this more than already-popular far-right parties. I’m not very familiar with the situation in countries like Belgium and the Netherlands though.
While some right wing parties are against increased spending I don’t think that will stop it. If I look at The Netherlands virtually every party is in favor of increased spending of some sort. Even PVV. And in countries where the far right is against, there is always the option of excluding them from governments.
More important is that the EU itself is heavily in favor of increased spending and ultimately they decide what their members states can and cannot do. So even if you as a member state go against the EU policy, you will face their consequences.
For The Netherlands I don’t have much hope. Even the left wing parties are in favor of increased spendings. Unions don’t really seems to make a fuss. For Belgium I have some more hope. Our party is heavily against and at least we have a good sized following. Unions are very vocally against it too. On Tuesday we had 140k people marching in Brussels against austerity and increased defense spending.