EU Budget Showdown: A Choreographed Conflict?

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

EU Budget Showdown: A Choreographed Conflict?

One day after the European Commission unveiled its new multi-annual budget, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz cast himself as its fiercest opponent. What we are witnessing, however, is nothing more than a choreographed quarrel between allies.

Merz was the first senior European politician to officially reject the EU Commission’s mega-budget proposal. He called Brussels’ ambitions “unacceptable” and ended with the classic political platitude that one must make do with the resources at hand. The same man, however, presides over a debt-driven government in Berlin — so does the maxim apply to himself?

The Commission’s proposal outlines €1.816 trillion in spending between 2028 and 2034 — an increase of an astounding €750 billion.

Diversionary Tactics and Strategic Intent

What we are watching is a staged performance — a well-worn ritual designed for public consumption. The declared goal of European elites is to crown Brussels with full tax sovereignty and expand the EU’s central body into a gravitational hub of geopolitical power. The endgame is a government of governments — a supranational mega-structure.

But to achieve this, public approval must be secured. Let’s not say “manipulated” — let’s say: shaped. So the elites serve up political theater and media distractions. The script is simple: Brussels demands the maximum. Predictable outrage follows — as from Merz — and in the end, both parties “compromise” on a figure that lets everyone save face and claim victory.

Even if Merz ends up trimming €100–200 billion off the budget, it’s likely still part of the Brussels PR playbook.

Fiscal Consolidation — Whether We Like It or Not

Over-indebted EU member states — particularly in the South — are seeking to consolidate their liabilities under the Commission’s protective umbrella. And they’ve found the ideal vehicle in the European Central Bank. With the ECB backstopping debt through ongoing interventions and yield curve control, the illusion of solvency can be maintained — at the expense of European taxpayers.

This would mark the end of a fragmented European bond market. Full integration would eliminate the last vestiges of fiscal competition between member states. From there, it’s “fire at will,” to quote the style of Germany’s SPD General Secretary.

Should Brussels succeed in enacting its unholy trinity — debt consolidation, its own tax sovereignty via CO₂ levies and corporate taxes, and the introduction of a digital euro to stem capital flight — then little will remain to stop the fortress-Europe vision from materializing.

United States of Europe

Brussels believes itself close to achieving its long-sought objective. This explains the growing hostility toward national-conservative parties — the last real bulwark against the centralizers’ dream of total government. The United States of Europe is being built atop vulgar Keynesian economics, propped up by media control and narrative discipline.

At its core, it’s grotesque. With laws like the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, EU bureaucrats inadvertently confirm their fear: that their frontal assault on national autonomy and economic liberty may ultimately fail. Brussels’ policy signals are defensive — and this budget draft is a preemptive effort to shore up its crumbling authority.

The Zombie’s Arms

A quick glance at the budget confirms the diagnosis: €131 billion is earmarked for European military projects. That’s a fivefold increase — and it comes on top of massive national military expansions. The EU’s central body, finding itself in the early stages of a fiscal crisis, is now retreating into militarism.

Media-fueled Putin panic serves as the justification to activate this new limb of the artificial euro economy.

The other limb — the so-called Green Deal – is kept alive by another €700 billion in subsidies. Thirty percent of the entire EU budget will now rotate the subsidy machine, pumping debt-financed money into the carbon-neutral, biodiversity-friendly fantasies of anemic euro-zone planners.

It’s bizarre. While the Commission tries to weave the Green Deal into mainstream media narratives, environmental groups reflexively attack the budget draft as strategically incoherent. Predictably, subsidies can never satisfy society’s growing dependency on the sweet drug of “free” money. EU-Europe has become the dealer — injecting that drug into the continent with no regard for social or economic consequences.

The entire debate is detached from economic reality. It’s as if Brussels is trying to drown all criticism in cheap money — and buy NGO support with state funding. Unless opponents of euro-centralism finally catch a tailwind, more lost years lie ahead. Especially alarming: the creeping militarization — in both rhetoric and policy.

That the left remains largely silent about this marks a significant political shift. Party competition has been replaced by a cartel of interests.

Militarism as Endgame

Historically, militarization is often a symptom of regimes entering their terminal phase — a sign they’ve lost internal control. The Brussels offensive is not a show of strength, but a confession of weakness: the EU construct is cracking. Its facade of unity is held together only by floods of credit and increasing repression of dissent.

The militarist push not only signals a new arms race — it ushers in a post-democratic EU. National interests are sacrificed — in energy, migration, and fiscal sovereignty. The political price: simmering discontent, rising anti-system sentiment, and a collapse of trust in institutions.

The staged budget clash continues in migration policy — where flashy deportation flights and symbolic border controls offer the illusion of responsiveness, but nothing more. Here too, Brussels’ interests and the will of the European majority diverge sharply.

Let’s be honest: Brussels, with help from its national outposts, is executing a globalist agenda. Cleaning up the aftermath will define the political and cultural future of the continent.