Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Lithuania are Catholic. Estonia is Protestant. Hungary is mixed but certainly not Orthodox. The EU is an authoritarian plutocracy before the liberal democracy laters get a look in.
There ARE major divisions in Europe but I think talk of a simple East-West dichotomy is incorrect. I may be wrong but the UnHerd thesis feels like camouflage for "cut those damn crazy Eastern Europeans loose!" so the EU can rollback to an earlier, more decent, more Maastricht, less self-sabotaging time. Which it probably should!
I'm for abolishing the EU, not for reverting it to some non-existing golden age. I'm simply stating a fact: that there are irreconcilable strategic differences between the East and the West. As I say at the end, the implication is that the EU will never be "autonomous" and that countries that want to take that route will have to do so outside of the EU's perimeter.
Needless to say I'm with you on the EU abolition. It's been a totalitarian project from the start and I guess it's good the mask is finally slipping re: general public perception.
My comment was more about the temptation to reduce European divisions to simple binaries like East v West, Catholic v Orthodox, Anglo-Saxon v Slav, "former Soviet bloc" v "Old (Western) Europe". I don't think these dichotomies are useful.
Geopolitical binaries at continent scale require glossing over - or erasing - existential national and historical contradictions. It's too much erroneous reductionism, too little European realpolitik.
p.s. I'm a fan of your work and I appreciated your steadfast commitment to not bending the knee to bullshit e.g. over Covid.
To comment on the religious denomination, I agree with the above, except Czech Republic is more Lutheran than Catholic. As for the authoritative project called the EU - it simply baffles me to see how the EU intrudes more in the states’ affairs than the Soviet Union did, and yet, it is ignored. Thank you for your your article.
Thanks! On the religious isse, I was simply presenting Huntington's argument. That said, it's a fact that Orthodoxy has historically been the dominant religion in the region and still is today.
Interesting! I was really talking about what was called Eastern Europe prior to the collapse of the USSR, which would be Poland, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia) and Hungary and there is not majority of the Orthodox Christians. And thank you also for the link. What I found astonishing is that Slovakia is not there at all. Not sure how one might think about it. Anyway, thank you.
Good piece!
Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Lithuania are Catholic. Estonia is Protestant. Hungary is mixed but certainly not Orthodox. The EU is an authoritarian plutocracy before the liberal democracy laters get a look in.
There ARE major divisions in Europe but I think talk of a simple East-West dichotomy is incorrect. I may be wrong but the UnHerd thesis feels like camouflage for "cut those damn crazy Eastern Europeans loose!" so the EU can rollback to an earlier, more decent, more Maastricht, less self-sabotaging time. Which it probably should!
I'm for abolishing the EU, not for reverting it to some non-existing golden age. I'm simply stating a fact: that there are irreconcilable strategic differences between the East and the West. As I say at the end, the implication is that the EU will never be "autonomous" and that countries that want to take that route will have to do so outside of the EU's perimeter.
Okay, fair enough.
Needless to say I'm with you on the EU abolition. It's been a totalitarian project from the start and I guess it's good the mask is finally slipping re: general public perception.
My comment was more about the temptation to reduce European divisions to simple binaries like East v West, Catholic v Orthodox, Anglo-Saxon v Slav, "former Soviet bloc" v "Old (Western) Europe". I don't think these dichotomies are useful.
Geopolitical binaries at continent scale require glossing over - or erasing - existential national and historical contradictions. It's too much erroneous reductionism, too little European realpolitik.
p.s. I'm a fan of your work and I appreciated your steadfast commitment to not bending the knee to bullshit e.g. over Covid.
Should they? yes. Can they? no. The Euro is a roach mottle. You check in, you cannot check out. If you could Greece would still be a country.
To comment on the religious denomination, I agree with the above, except Czech Republic is more Lutheran than Catholic. As for the authoritative project called the EU - it simply baffles me to see how the EU intrudes more in the states’ affairs than the Soviet Union did, and yet, it is ignored. Thank you for your your article.
Thanks! On the religious isse, I was simply presenting Huntington's argument. That said, it's a fact that Orthodoxy has historically been the dominant religion in the region and still is today.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/05/10/religious-affiliation/
Interesting! I was really talking about what was called Eastern Europe prior to the collapse of the USSR, which would be Poland, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia) and Hungary and there is not majority of the Orthodox Christians. And thank you also for the link. What I found astonishing is that Slovakia is not there at all. Not sure how one might think about it. Anyway, thank you.