Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the decline of the West. A video of his speech at the University of Francisco de Vitoria in Madrid is published on the website of the newspaper Mundo.
“For centuries, the world axis passed in the west, and today it has shifted east. Of the seven billion people living on the planet, four billion live in Asia, and only 800 million in the center. We are no longer the world axis, and for this there are demographic reasons”, – said the politician.
In his opinion, the crisis of the European Union is caused by outdated ideas. So, the ex-president noted, there cannot be a united Europe from 27 countries. Instead, he sees the “four Europeans”: Schengen, the euro, defense and the union, therefore calls for abandoning old concepts and thinking about “future Europe”. This situation, Sarkozy emphasized, led, in particular, to Brexit, which he called “insanity, drama and historical contradiction”.
“Europe should stop being motionless in a changing world. Citizens need to know where they are going. We need a dream. Due to inaction, others become owners of the dream. And the old European civilization still has dreams and ambitions. It does not want to die”, – added the ex-president.
One of the symptoms of the decline of the West, the former French leader called the election of Donald trump to the post of US president. According to Sarkozy, he likes to see the United States as a strong power, “which would point the way,” but he admitted that “he never believed that posts on Twitter can make anyone strong”.