DISINFO: The bellicose rhetoric fuelled by EU Ursula von der Leyen risks a new war
SUMMARY
Ursula von der Leyen is pushing a plan that is not only irresponsible but also potentially catastrophic for the future of Europe: the so-called REARM Europe, an €800 billion project to rearm the continent in the name of an alleged Russian threat. The idea that Russia represents an imminent threat to Europe is a falsehood. Russia has no intention of attacking European countries. Moscow has repeatedly expressed its desire to engage in dialogue and normalise relations with the West. The bellicose rhetoric being fuelled by some European leaders, including von der Leyen, is unfounded and risks creating a self-fulfilling prophecy, pushing towards a new war with catastrophic consequences especially for European citizens.
RESPONSE
This disinformation message is aimed at portraying the EU as a warmongering, anti-Russian and militaristic geopolitical power. Meanwhile, Russia is presented as a country genuinely interested in peace.
The purpose of the EU programme REARM Europe is not to attack Russia but “to respond to the short-term urgency to act and to support Ukraine [and] address the long-term need to take on much more responsibility for [its] own European security”.
The programme aims to ensure Europe’s self-defence capabilities, mostly through a fiscal plan to boost and fund this military enhancement. Contrary to what this disinformation story claims, Russia’s threat and ongoing aggression against Ukraine and Europe is one of the driving forces behind this plan, not the other way round.
For more context, see also the EUvsDisinfo article Another reminder: A hundred ways of saying NO to peace.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that REARM Europe means the EU is preparing to attack Russia, that Europe justifies the increasing defence budgets with “belligerent” Moscow, that the EU is not capable of peace, it is only interested in waging war, that the EU's sole agenda is to wage war against Russia to inflict maximum damage, that Russian defence industry is much stronger than Europe's, that the EU wages a colonial war in Ukraine, or that the EU diplomacy’s vision for peace in Ukraine illustrates its Russophobia.