The Charlemagne Prize in Aachen has always been a farce, reflecting above all the political class’s aloofness and distance from the people. It is therefore not surprising that this year’s prizewinner is EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The reasoning behind the award to the controversial top EU official is revealing. The Charlemagne Prize website states: “For her services to the unity of the member states, the containment of the pandemic, the unity of the will to defend against Russia and the impetus for the Green Deal on the one hand, as well as for her encouragement towards the tasks ahead, the Board of Directors of the Society for the Award of the International Charlemagne Prize is honoring the President of the Commission of the European Union with the award of the International Charlemagne Prize in Aachen in 2025.”
Nota bene: the Commission President is currently on trial because of her completely non-transparent vaccine orders, which cost the European taxpayer tens of billions of euros. For the Charlemagne Prize College, this is irrelevant. Instead, it states: “The Commission took responsibility for a coordinated European vaccination strategy, played a key role in securing funding for the development of effective vaccines, and thus within a few months not only Europeans had access to several billion Covid-19 vaccine doses, but developing countries were also supplied with them.”
The award committee also praised von der Leyen’s Ukraine policy, which contributed significantly to the escalation of tensions with Russia, and the EU’s “Green Deal” that she promoted.
With such achievements, von der Leyen is in good company. Previous Charlemagne Prize winners include long-time EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (2006), former German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2008), former SPD EU Parliament President Martin Schulz (2015), French President Emmanuel Macron (2018), Ukrainian President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people (2023). What they all have in common is that they have effectively damaged German and European interests in one way or another and rewarded undemocratic leaders.
Ignoring election results to further NATO goals
Călin Georgescu had easily won the first round of the Romanian presidential election at the end of November after the media and “experts” had predicted that he would receive one percent of the vote. But then the Romanian Constitutional Court annulled the election at the behest of the EU. It is still unclear when it will be repeated.
Georgescu has now legally challenged the election annulment. He has now spoken out again in an interview with US journalist Alex Jones and accused NATO of working towards a third world war. The Western alliance, under the new Secretary General Mark Rutte, is trying to involve Romania in military actions and thus provoke a third world war.
Georgescu said: “Rutte, the NATO chief, is imposing his rules on the EU and is trying to provoke a third world war in the region, assigning Romania the role of a central platform. This is the greatest danger we face.” Georgescu had previously warned that the Romanian NATO air base Mihail Kogălniceanu on the Black Sea coast not far from Constanta would be used as a gateway for a future war with Russia.
In his view, the EU represents the “political arm of globalism,” while NATO is its “military arm.” The alliance is currently divided. A struggle for influence is underway between the supporters of the designated US President Donald Trump, whom Georgescu sees as “advocates of peace,” and the “European wing.”
Representatives of the latter faction are pursuing a policy of confrontation and want to bring the situation around Ukraine under their own control. “It is a dramatic situation.”
Referring to the heads of state and government in Western European countries, Georgescu said that “all key positions are occupied by slaves of the system.” But in Romania too, the authorities behave like puppets of the West. He continued: “Through them, the West wants to drag Romania into a global conflict as quickly as possible.”
The Trump effect
Trump is already having an impact: since his election victory in November, the attitude of many Americans towards Russia has noticeably changed. This is the result of a survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), the results of which were published on Wednesday. At the same time, Europeans’ trust in the USA is declining, the think tank notes.
The study examined the attitudes of respondents towards Russia in 24 countries. In the US, 11 percent of respondents described Russia as an “ally” and another 20 percent as a “useful partner”. In contrast, 17 percent saw Russia as a “rival” and 38 percent as an “enemy”. This is a significant change compared to the last survey, which was conducted between December 2022 and January 2023. At that time, 0 percent of American respondents chose the “ally” option, while 55 percent viewed the country as an “enemy”.
There are other interesting changes: in the nine EU countries surveyed, the proportion of those who see the US as an ally has fallen from 31 percent to 22 percent. An increasingly positive attitude was also observed among Russians and Chinese. Both populations are more likely to see each other as allies.
ECFR donors include Western governments and large non-governmental organizations such as the Open Society Foundation founded by George Soros and the network of Pierre Omidyar.