The Worst of Both Worlds

Speech by Ralf Dekker MP in the Second Chamber of the Netherlands’ Estates-General, 29 January 2025

Chairman,

The Trump revolution has begun. Executive orders and statements are raining down from the president which run counter to previous US policy directions. Yet I still feel that Trump is holding back because a few crucial appointments to his administration, notably those of Robert Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard, have yet to be ratified by the US Congress.

Already a few things stand out.

Trump prefers to speak directly to heads of government rather than to unelected representatives of the Brussels bureaucracy.

Trump is ambivalent about NATO, he understands that NATO expansion to the Russian border is perceived as a threat by Putin. He also thinks Europe should organise and pay for its own security much more than it does now.

Trump wants to hold direct talks with Putin to end the Ukraine war, without the presence of European representatives.

Trump admits that the blowing up of the Nordstream pipeline, partly a Dutch infrastructure, occurred under America's direction.

Trump also thinks – according to Musk's word - that Germany should re-establish itself and he has sympathy for the AfD and its plans. 

Trump wants to say goodbye to the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion phenomenon. He has repealed Lyndon Johnson's 1965 executive order on Affirmative Action. This policy is already being followed by major companies including Amazon.

Trump has withdrawn the United States from the World Health Organisation and the Paris Climate Agreement. Trump thinks windmills and solar fields should disappear, he thinks climate change is a hoax and he wants more drilling for oil and gas so that America becomes completely independent of other countries for energy.

Trump also wants to bring Greenland and the Panama Canal under full US control as soon as possible

Chairman, it is no exaggeration to call this a revolution.

For most European countries, for the EU and for NATO, this comes as a huge shock. Until recently, the EU was a direct extension of the US, especially where foreign policy was concerned, aimed at weakening Russia to the maximum. The Netherlands enthusiastically helped in this. 

And in various other policy areas, such as healthcare, energy transition and infrastructure, we were also guided by the EU and NATO, which in turn were extensions of the US government's vision. 

A question for the prime minister: how far does this actually go? In which policy areas are there compelling secret Navo instructions? Are not the possibilities for oversight being taken out of the Chamber's hands here?

Let's face it. European countries were vassal states of the United States for years. 

The people of the US wanted sweeping real change and therefore chose Trump en masse. A completely different America. America First.

EU and NATO seem to have become Loser environments.

Our old anchor point has thus ceased to exist. We will have to set our own direction as a country. Does the prime minister agree with Forum for Democracy?

Thus, the resurgence of big brother and loyal trading partner Germany is vital for the Netherlands. 

Continuing the old direction without America, as suggested by Ms Kallas on Ukraine, among others, is illogical. This direction was already never in the Dutch interest, but without full American support it is suicide. 

If it did that, Europe would end up with the ‘worst of both worlds’: disrupted relations with both Russia and America, unaffordable defence in an EU with open borders, and with a prohibitively expensive insecure energy supply. 

If the EU wants to go that way with NATO, a Nexit and a departure from NATO are urgent. 

National sovereignty is the only answer.

Thank you