“[Putin] does not stop stressing what he’s really longing for, like, a renaissance of the Soviet empire,” Pistorius said of Putin. “He wants to be the dominant power in Europe. […]”
Germany’s biggest defense contractor, Rheinmetall, and its subsidiaries have won a commanding share of recent government contracts.
Rheinmetall was one of Germany’s major arms producers during WWI and WWII.
Is it real or is it just bluster because Trump is unpopular among the European electorate? I seem to remember them making similar noises when the tariffs came in and then quietly completely capitulating
It’s real in that they do not want to be US vassals. It’s popular because of Trump. It’s not going to be quick or easy though with how reliant upon the US militarily. The push to build a bigger EU military is not because they believe in war with Russia being likely, it is because they recognise how much it fucked them, the US bombed nordstream and the EU just had to take it because they had no choice. It was either pander to the US or suffer economic ruin without oil and gas that is now shipped via boats from the US.