The guys with super egos you should worry about

 

Lena Mellin
Two lunatics, an aging and two losers
They want to rule over you

Lena Mellin

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.

Published 06.43

Biden and Macron. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP

Macron.
Scholz.
Trump.
Biden.
Putin.

Five uncles with huge egos that you have to care about. Two lunatics, an aging and two losers.

The world is largely ruled by men. They have egos as big as an elephant. Otherwise, they would not have reached where they are.

Swedish politicians at national level like to overemphasize their influence over the situation in Sweden. But in an increasingly globalized world, it is certainly not only Swedish politicians who make decisions about what applies here. Unless it's about farm sales of wine - and barely even then.

In the EU, the Axis powers Germany and France have had a dominant influence on development. When Angela Merkel was chancellor, she held the baton. In recent years it has been French President Emmanuel Macron.

But now both he and Merkel's successor Olaf Scholz are weakened. Scholz after a major setback in the elections to the European Parliament a month ago, long-term squabbling in the three-party coalition, weak opinion figures for the government and failing confidence in himself. 

 

Macron also went on the dung in the EU election. His own team became only half the size of the National Assembly, Le Pen's party.

Macron's counter-move must be considered a high-risk project. He dissolved the National Assembly and called new elections. The first round did not go in his favor. The next round of elections will be held on Sunday.

Macron's tactic, to scare with the alternatives, does not seem to be going home at all. It all leans towards a so-called "cohabitation", a cohabitation between a government with a different color is Macron's own. In that case, such a staggered leadership will govern France until the presidential election in 2027.

Emmanuel Macron is to a large extent the tone-setting ideological force in today's EU cooperation. He gave a speech already in 2022 at the Sorbonne University where he outlined his vision of the Union's future. He repeated it this year and then warned of what could happen if the member states do not stick together, investing in climate, education, poverty alleviation and technological development, among other things:

- We must be clear-sighted about the fact that our Europe can die today. Macron said.

It doesn't get better that Germany is our biggest trading partner. And that France is in ninth place. As a medium-sized member state heavily dependent on exports, it is important that the EU functions and develops in the right direction.

Trump. Photo: Seth Wenig/AP

Sweden, like large parts of the rest of the Western world, is also dependent on the United States. The ties, political and military, between Washington and Stockholm are closer than ever before. The USA is Sweden's third largest export market for goods.

It is a mystery that a country with 330 million inhabitants cannot produce better candidates for the world's most influential presidency than Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

There is, in and of itself, nothing majorly wrong with Biden. He seems like a decent fellow. But just over two weeks after the presidential election, he turns 82 and he does not take his years lightly. On the contrary, he sounds powerless and he looks powerless. It is hard to understand how he could manage four more years in the White House.

Donald Trump recently turned 78 but is not nearly as marked by his age as Biden. However, he must be considered somewhat insane. In any case, there are obvious flaws in his ability to take in the facts.

Putin. Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP

Vladimir Putin's ego is by far the biggest in this quintet. He believes he has a historical task, to secure Russia's historical legacy as a political, cultural and military great power (regardless of the veracity of Putin's historiography). He, too, must be regarded as suffering from a fit of insanity. Or what should one call the initial move to call war a "special operation"?

Such people are dangerous. Not so much for themselves as for those around them. The half a million people believed to have died or been injured on both sides in Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine know that. This is also known by all the countries that are emptying their stores to send ammunition to the defense of Ukraine. And NATO, which unexpectedly gained two new members.

Five uncles with big egos who already rule, or will rule, your world. Did you get anxious? There is reason to be.

FOOTNOTE: Putin is 71, Scholz, 66 and Macron 46.

THREE EXPOSURES

Elisabeth Svantesson (M) did not even get to deliver the gratifying announcement that the government believes the fight against inflation has been won. Half a day before the press conference, Ulf Kristersson (M), and his finance minister, wrote an article with the announcement. He ended up, as intended, in the limelight.

Foreign Minister Tobias Billström (M) is the government's main candidate for the new Swedish EU commissioner, claims Sveriges Radio. No man and no moderate has previously held the post. But why would Billström change his buttery job for a probably rather hidden post in the commission for five years?

 

The government's political appointments continue. This autumn, Member of Parliament Hans Wallmark, 59, (M) will be the new ambassador in Copenhagen. It is true that Wallmark has dealt with foreign and security policy for ages, most recently as chairman of the Defense Committee. But has no diplomatic experience.