Here is the best answer to Trump’s tariffs: in the general silence of everyone, no one noticed that last week in Strasbourg the FRUGAL front collapsed and was approved by 303 votes in favor, 289 against and 62 abstentions, an amendment (n. 101) to the text on the EU defense strategy (rapporteur Nicolás PASCUAL DE LA PARTE), which calls on the Commission to increase the EU’s common debt to ensure that the Union has the necessary budgetary capacity to borrow in exceptional and crisis situations

Looking at the vote, we can see how the issue divides the EPP, Renew and ECR, where the MEPs from Southern and Eastern Europe are in favor, while the Germans and the Dutch are always against. Just as the extremist groups, both right and left, were firmly against. For once, however, the S&D was united. Finally, someone realized that a European monetary union that refused to become a fiscal union and instead opted for a beggar-thy-neighbor strategy of running large and persistent current account surpluses was always going to be vulnerable to such a shock.