!["The 19th century concept of the nation state will never take us across the threshold of the 21st century [...] We need a strong Europe if we don't want to become the plaything of world politics" – Chancellor Helmut Kohl](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/zl0u4f3hofxf1-1920x1024.jpeg)
“The 19th century concept of the nation state will never take us across the threshold of the 21st century […] We need a strong Europe if we don’t want to become the plaything of world politics” – Chancellor Helmut Kohl
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by goldstarflag
34 comments
https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/history-eu/eu-pioneers/helmut-kohl-and-francois-mitterrand_en
How relevant Helmut Kohl’s words are even today! A strong and unified Europe is the demand of the time.
I’m not very optimistic about this. Among history there have been many attempts to unify Europe, all failed.
Just to avoid certain replies, I’m a bit Eurosceptic because I don’t think it will work, not because I wouldn’t like it to.
Even more of a valid point in the era of Xi, Pootin and Trumpolini
Strong united europe is russias worst nightmare
In the second quarter of the 21st century the 19th century concept of the nation state is as strong as ever and there is nothing to signify that this may change. If Europe wants to keep it’s strong position in global politics then it needs to realise that the time of empires is over and trying to mold the European Union into another global imperialist power is not only going to fail but be a complete betreyal of every single virtue of european culture that led to the founding of the European Union. You cannot make an European empire, not under old banners, not under new ones. The sooner we accept and embrace the simple and unalterable truth that we are a community of free nation states the stronger this community will grow and prosper. The same imperialist ambitions resurfacing now should have been abandoned two centuries ago, and the next best moment is now.
This sub is infested with Russian bots.
Absolute truth. We need to stay (even more) united in Europe, otherwise the European nations will get dominated by the US, China and other upcoming economies, even more than it already is. Besides it’s the only way to stand up against BigCorp and BigBank.
In the meanwhile every far-right party in Europe tries to bound with Putin with obsolete ideas related to nationalism and populism.
How can Europe stay united if there are loads of Russian Trojan horses? Hungary and Slovakia are just the more vocal ones. EU countries still purchase natural resources from Russia and fund the war. There’s no united Europe, as each state pursues its own interests. The EU was created to prevent war within Europe by promoting the mobility of workers and goods for the common good, not undermining the concept of the nation-state.
I was never a fan of Kohl but totally agree with him regarding Europe.
I agreed with that.
We need a strong Europe but only possible if everyone is equally respected and important decisions are not made by the big Western countries only.
Better co-operation and a joint military task force i am all for. But becoming a federation is something i am not interested in. We didn’t want to be under Berlin 80 years ago and we aren’t interested now either
Led by Germany I suspect?
In case you were wondering if the EU is a threat to your nation’s sovereignty in the long term.
Europe should also STOP giving immigrants who kill and rape, minimal sentences using excuses like “cultural differences”. No Europe, you are not racist to convict murderers and rapists.
So, on these issues, we must endorse the federalist project or risk being labelled pro-Russian, and we must not question the assertions of those who repeat talking points like bots.
Schuman said it perfectly in 1950 too
… who was Korruption in Fleisch und Blut.
A neoliberal, corrupt traitor who sold the assets of the east to the best-paying thugs. Nowadays, Eastern Germany is a nazi hellhole. There is a connection!
I’ll take the downvotes for this:
No thank you, I am Norwegian, not European. Our gates are open and without cooperation with the rest of Europe we’re screwed.
But we’ll keep the keys to our gates, our right to self governance is not negotiable.
Kohl repeated essentially what the founders of the European Movement said and people are flipping out as if the Germans want to conquer Europe.
That’s was wise at his time. Now it’s common sense. Unfortunately, there are not enough European with common sense nowaday.
I guess in the revisionism of today, even a Helmut Kohl quote can be posted without any second thought. Corrupt from head to toe, in a neoliberal line with Reagan and Thatcher to privatise anything and everything. Like come on, isnt there a better person to quote?
He is right 🇪🇺
Least guilted and self loathing German.
Poland will not absolve its nationhood. It has fought for hundreds of years to be where it is. If we have to go down fighting for it- so be it, been doing that for a long time.
Only nation states will survive this century. Every country that lets in the world will lose its identity and collapse.
Soviet Union but with “good guys”
He’s right. Too bad that the EU has the design flaw of being a cartel of nation state governments, instead of an institution representing the european people as a whole. The comission and the council are vehicles of the national government (executive branch) to wield legislative power on the EU level, for which they would not get majorities on the national level. That’s why they represent the interests of nation states, not of all europeans. The EU as an institution harms the idea of a strong Europe based on shared values and culture.
No thanks!
Trying to make one state out of many states. No thanks.
It’s not going to work, becuase national intersts will be always more important than pan-European interest.
Simple example is Nordstream 1 and 2. CEE countries were strongy against it while Germany, Netherlands and Austria strongly for it and we all know how well it ended…
The list go on and on. Immigration, debt, EU founds, military, borders, foreighn policy etc…
There will be always issues like that. You cannot be federal organisation like USA, because USA are one nation, have ultimately one goal and one purpose. European nations compete each other even within EU.
Noone in Berlin will put Polish interest before German one. It’s simple as that.
EU can function as open free market with it’s perks but will fail miserably as federation.
People always hate on the EU so much, completely disregarding the vast benefits of it. Free movement of people and goods alone is such a massively fantastic thing to have! If this ever falls apart and we lose our collective weight on the world stage… we would be in for a whole new reality and one that truly sucks. Good luck negotiating anything of value as small individual countries.
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