We believe in Europe

By Martin Lidegaard, political leader

We believe in Europe.

We can bow our heads in submission — or we can rise and stand tall.

Europe can and must choose the latter. Hope is not a strategy, but without hope, the right strategy cannot be forged.

The strategy demands political leadership and swift action in three crucial areas:

We must expand Europe’s own green, secure, and stable energy supply. Halting our economic support for Putin’s military through the import of Russian oil and gas is just as vital as strengthening our own defense.

But our security is threatened by more than just Putin and Trump.

Global warming is the greatest killer of them all. A decisive transition to green energy would not only confront this threat — it could also, for the first time since the Second World War, provide European industry with a stable and competitive energy supply.

We need a common defense — both military and democratic.

During the COVID-19 crisis, the EU built vaccine programs and factories within months. Now, we must do the same with our own defense industry, so we can rearm more quickly and cost-effectively than by relying on imports from the United States and Israel.

But our most powerful weapon against the pandemic was not the vaccine alone. It was our mutual trust and care for one another. In the same way, the most vital part of Europe’s defense may well be our shared belief in each other — and in the values that built Europe:

Democracy and enlightenment. Freedom with responsibility

Our welfare and our values depend on our ability to ensure that European businesses continue to grow and compete in the new world order.

On our terms and according to our standards. The geopolitical power struggle is also a contest over who will own the technologies and industries of the future.

We possess the world’s strongest single market. It must be strengthened further — with less regulation of the trivial and greater joint strategic investments in areas such as the green transition, artificial intelligence, and digitalisation. Excellence in research and education will be decisive.

The weeks and months ahead must not be defined by what we reject.
They must be shaped by what we choose — the future we want to build for ourselves and for the generations to come.

We know what must be done, and we are capable of doing what we set our minds to.
In the Social Liberal Party, we believe in Europe.

What we need is a plan B.