“Because I believe in the European Union, I believe that this can be a wake-up call, a hard and rude landing to a reality that will force Europeans to understand that if they want others to take them seriously they have to take themselves seriously,” Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said, explaining to the First Program exactly how he meant the content of his post, where he wondered “whether Donald Trump’s policy is not a threat, but Europe’s last chance“.

“Let me make something clear. I am a very pro-European politician. I am one of those who, as you will remember from 2010, I supported then the economic program to stay in the Eurozone and in the European Union. I was always one of those who said that Greece’s future is as a member of the European Union, and so I speak from the perspective of a politician who has supported the European Union at personal cost. I am not a Eurosceptic. I am pro-European. But that does not mean that I cannot see reality. So what is reality? (…) There is a summit in Saudi Arabia to find a solution to the war in Ukraine. In other words, a war on the territory of Europe, a war for which the European people have paid billions of euros in costs and for which their daily lives have been changed to a very great extent. Inflation, for example, is very much due to the war. And Europe has not even been invited to this conference,” Georgiadis pointed out.

“The first thing we need to discuss is why it has not been invited. The answer is obvious. Because Europe does not matter. This is a very harsh thing to say, but unfortunately as a historian I say it is the truth. Europe internationally is irrelevant and the reason why it is irrelevant is because it has chosen for many, many years to be irrelevant. Europe has chosen not to have a European Army. I would like to remind you that the idea of creating a Euroarmy is a Greek idea that was already initiated by Greece and that Andreas Papandreou was telling the European institutions about it,” Georgiadis said.

“Is it possible for Europe to believe that it can be taken very seriously if it has no legs of its own and relies on the legs of the United States? The answer is no. (…) What are the Europeans discovering? They are discovering that they are completely naked. That is the reality and what I am actually writing in my article is that what we should be concerned about is why we are not invited to Saudi Arabia.”

On the rhetoric of Trump and Elon Musk and whether the revisionist movement is growing, Georgiadis commented the following. “History goes through phases where the borders are very stable and respected, a phase of stability and a phase of revisionism. It is absolutely obvious that the historical pendulum, after many years on the side of stability, is tending towards revisionism. This is not good for Greece. I am just saying what is happening. Whether we don’t like what is happening is another thing, a different order of magnitude of discussion. Yes, I don’t like it either. I prefer a world where international law is in force. Of course, an international law, for example, in Cyprus, which has been violated by the Turks for 40 years, 50 years, and the international community does nothing, is in itself to a certain extent humiliating. The Republic of Cyprus is a full member of the European Union, Greece is a full member of the European Union. Turkey occupies European territory in Cyprus and has a casus belli against Greece in the Aegean. Do we need to explain to the Europeans, for example, that they should not sell advanced weapons systems to Turkey? But if they had a European conscience, they would not do it. It would be like the United States selling arms to a country that owns a part of Texas. So the time has come for Europe to decide how much Europe it wants to be.”

Regarding the current Paris Summit, Georgiadis noted that the Greek Prime Minister has for years, in almost every Summit, raised the issue of the exemption of defence spending from the deficit clause.
“It is a long-standing Greek demand. The Prime Minister has taken many initiatives, he has signed letters with the Prime Minister of Poland from time to time, with other Prime Ministers, etc. The fact that Mrs von der Leyen asked the day before yesterday for this to become a reality, that is, it is now a proposal from the European Commission, is no small success for Greece. If it is actually achieved then Greece, first of all, will have a huge relief in its finances, of no small importance for the country,” he added.

Regarding the fact that Greece is not participating in the summit, Georgiadis explained that the countries that give the most aid to Ukraine have been invited. “Greece does not give so much aid to Ukraine, despite our internal political troubles. Greece of course supports the national integrity of Ukraine, it is in Greece’s interest. But it is not one of the countries, the big donors to Ukraine, as the countries that have been invited. The countries that have been invited are those that have a leading role in the war“.