The Political Opposition to the Rearmament Program Led by Giuseppe Conte Takes Shape

A coalition of some 15 left wing European parties led by the former PM of Italy Giuseppe Conte (M5Stelle) opposes the Rearm Europe plans. Last Tuesday June 24, 2025, they signed a common declaration to reject increased military spending at the solemn end of a hybrid meeting in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament in the Hague where at the same time the NATO summit was going to be held. Before that a series of eminent left (and extreme left) wing party figures from different countries (Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Portugal, Spain,…) explained their positions in which one central claim came back: do not touch the European social model of social security and so much more that is at the heart of what Europe and the EU stands for.

Diplomacy is what we need most and foreall. A lot of historical references were made, especially to the years following WWII and one especially to the farewell speech in 1961 of the Republican (!) US President who was (and still is) also the only five-star rank general of the army who became President of the USA, Dwight.D.Eisenhower. As wikipedia informs us he gave In this speech the American nation a dire warning about what he described as a threat to democratic government.

He called it the military-industrial complex, a formidable union of defense contractors and of the armed forces. Is this reference to history at its place? Art3, §1 of the Maastricht Treaty on the European Union (TEU) states that the Union’s purpose is to promote peace, its values, and the well-being of its citizens. These values are further defined in Article 2 of the TEU as respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights. Do the opponents to Rearm Europe have a point when they conclude the current leaders are putting the primacy of this aside to give it in for the primacy of defense and (instable) security?

Is Mr Conte objective when he says the plans are only about spending and have no clear vision? In the interview given to The Eurotoday Newspaper he appears as a reasonable and rational , not hot-headed political leader and as an elder statesman ( that he is indeed). But the question remains if he is not at the head of a coalition of the not willing, having in mind their local political interest to rally the dissatisfied? Not much precise was said for which concrete (de)escalation management we should go, especially in regard to Russia and the war in Ukraine.

In another conference in the city of The Hague organised by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs the eminent Russia specialist Marc Galleotti declared deterrence is about influencing Putin, bringing in the importance of the impression management in which for the moment Putin has the mastership. Symmetrie is what our leaders must look for and find how to make our European message being heard and accepted by other nations.

As the saying goes: History will tell us, but what is sure is that we are living in unprecedented times in the post WWII era.

Fmr PM of Italy and President of M5Stelle, Giuseppe Conte, insists on bringing back the primacy of politics (Interview Giuseppe Conte The Hague. 24.06.2025.)

Giuseppe Conte is an Italian jurist, academic, and politician who served as prime minister of Italy from June 2018 to February 2021. He has been the president of the Five Star Movement since August 2021. The Eurotoday Newspaper could briefly interview him on the margin of an anti-EU Rearm rally he organised in The Hague with a coalition of left wing parties on