Author: vertical and horizontal source: planting flower city (id:hqsycn)
In the face of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Europe chose to fight against Russia, which has both European considerations and reasons to follow the United States.
Now, it has brought trouble to Europe, and the two direct results are as follows:
1. The euro once fell below 1:1 against the dollar. At its peak, one euro could be exchanged for about $1.60. Now, basically, one euro is exchanged for one dollar, and even for less than one dollar at one time.
Within 18 days, four European leaders resigned successively.
On June 27, Bulgarian Prime Minister Petrov announced his resignation; On July 7, British Prime Minister Johnson announced his resignation; On July 14, Estonian Prime Minister carlas announced his resignation. On the same day, Italian Prime Minister Draghi announced his resignation.
Let’s explain the reasons for these consequences.
The first is the European economic dilemma
Affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and following the United States’ sanctions against Russia, Europe has encountered multiple dilemmas such as energy crisis and food crisis, which has increased inflation and risks sliding towards stagflation.
Inflation in Europe is now very high, reaching about 9%, and Estonia’s CPI in June reached an unprecedented 22%.
For western countries, once the economy goes wrong, their rulers often don’t stay in power for long. At the same time, the weakness of Europe’s own economy has also buried hidden dangers for the decline of the euro.
The second is political division
The economic foundation determines the superstructure. Once the economy goes wrong, other problems will follow. For Europe, a direct secondary disaster caused by it is political division.
As for the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, whether to support Ukraine and whether to sanction Russia, there are differences of opinion between new and old Europe, political parties and people.
Take Italy as an example. The first largest party, the “five star Movement Party” (now the second largest party due to Division), called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, while the Italian government led by Draghi followed the United States in imposing sanctions on Russia and providing funds and weapons to Ukraine, which directly led to the division between political parties.
According to a European poll in June, 35% of the European respondents supported “peace seeking” on the Ukrainian issue, and about 20% supported confrontation. In fact, it’s ok now. In a few months, when winter comes and there is no heating due to lack of energy, Europeans will be more able to experience it.
Economic difficulties and political divisions have become increasingly difficult for some European leaders to mix. Now even Germany’s Scholz is increasingly silent, and France’s macron has also lost an absolute majority of seats in the national assembly.
Again, the United States sharpens its knife
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates sharply, which led to the appreciation of the US dollar. However, the economic situation in Europe was not good, so it did not dare to follow up the interest rate increase by the same amount.
It goes without saying that the European economy is weak. As mentioned above, Europe is now facing high inflation and even the risk of sliding to stagflation. At the same time, it is also facing multiple difficulties such as food and energy. Economic weakness has led to the depreciation of the euro.
This rise and fall led to a sharp decline in the exchange rate of the euro against the US dollar, a 1:1 spectacle never seen in 20 years.
It is clear here that the sharp fall of the euro exchange rate and the continuous resignation of European leaders reflect the economic difficulties and political divisions in Europe. On the one hand, it is the result of the United States waving a sickle (the Federal Reserve raising interest rates), on the other hand, it is the result of Europe following the United States to impose sanctions on Russia and worsen its own economy.
It has also proved once again that those who follow the United States have basically no good results. They may not be the first to die, but they often die the worst.
? EU video screenshot
Europe, which has experienced this doom, should promote the following two aspects if it has a little self-awareness, but if those in power in Europe are not all straw bags:
The first is to continue to promote “European Strategic Autonomy” and try to get rid of American control politically and militarily, otherwise similar difficulties will continue to unfold, and the sickle of the United States will cut off Europe one after another;
The second is to diversify energy as much as possible and get rid of dependence on Russian energy and food.
If not, Europe, which is controlled by the United States in politics and security, and Russia in energy and food, will never emerge.