The European Union has long been presented as a potential counterweight to American power, but it has never functioned as such. In fact, it has always been a critical lever that has chained Europe to the US-led transatlantic NATO system; it has effectively functioned as NATO’s political arm. This situation is particularly evident today under Ursula von der Leyen, who has made extraordinary efforts to align European countries with US interests, even against the will of individual European governments.

Today we are at an extremely dangerous threshold. Because, through the EU, which is a structurally undemocratic institution, the transatlantic NATO establishment has established full economic and political dominance over European countries. These are not sovereign countries by any definition; and therefore, they are not democratic, to the extent that sovereignty is the precondition for popular self-rule. This situation makes the possibility of achieving a systemic transformation through the ballot box even more difficult.