by Chris Black
Winter in Europe is a time of joy.
Our countries celebrate a wide range of Advent related holidays in the lead up to Christmas, such as Lucia in Sweden.
Germans have their glorious Christmas markets and the Dutch flood the streets for the yearly arrival of Sinterklaas from Spain.
But perhaps not this year.
The European Commission has put forward plans for mandatory energy cuts (www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/leak-eu-plans-revenue-cap-on-power-firms-mandatory-electricity-savings-at-peak-hours/) while member state governments are scrambling to find ways to save energy (www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/the-green-brief-is-europe-finally-taking-energy-conservation-seriously/) which don’t entail the use for the word mandatory.
German’s worker and industrial unions are warning of the complete collapse of entire industries (www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-03/germany-s-union-head-warns-of-collapse-of-entire-industries) and France’s central bank as joined the litany of others warning of impending (www.reuters.com/markets/europe/french-central-bank-sees-slowdown-next-year-risk-recession-2022-09-15/) recession.
And all of this, we are told, is a “sacrifice” to help Ukraine.
The hundreds of millions of people in Europe who don’t live in Ukraine should not have to freeze during winter, go hungry on Christmas and be unable to find work after the New Year.
This is not an acceptable “sacrifice” and any national government which puts the interests of Ukraine before that of its own citizens has lost the last remaining tatters of legitimacy it may have held.