A signatory of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, political commentator and security policy expert Audrius Butkevičius comments on the most important political events and the most significant trends of recent weeks. Excerpts from an interview with the newspaper Respublika.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has repeatedly stated that Poland is appointing judges incorrectly and overseeing the judiciary in the country incorrectly, and that it must suspend the operation of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court until it is determined whether such an institution is sufficiently independent from politicians... Do you not get the impression that Brussels (the leadership of the European Union (EU)) has long since decided to get rid of disobedient EU members, leaving only humble, unanimous vassals in the organisation?

I think it is a little too early for such a statement... We are currently witnessing Brussels' attempts to “break the Poles' backbone”, and if that fails, then of course Brussels will try to distance itself from “disobedient” people, such as the Poles or the Hungarians. Apparently, they did not expect such a firm stance on statehood and sovereignty from the Eastern Europeans. Moreover, the Poles are demonstrating an example of how to “infect” the Czechs and the Hungarians. ... So, our dear “partners” in the west are trying to strike while the iron is hot, but, evidently, they have already missed the boat.

However, it is strange that at a time when a virus is raging in the world, and even some representatives of Brussels are calling for unity, decisions are being made that demonstratively flout the fundamental rights of a sovereign state. Does the EU leadership hope that the Poles will humbly apologise and “drop to their knees”, waiting for Brussels to appoint the “right” judges?

I think that in Brussels, they may well understand that the virus is not as frightening as it is being shouted about on all channels. The latest data is coming in from Italy, where mortality figures have been carefully reviewed and corrected, and they are the same as in Great Britain ... It is becoming clear that all the “safety” measures were not only unnecessary but also very disparate. Attention was drawn to concocted matters ... If we look at the situation in Lithuania, we see the same – hospitals are only involved in the fight against the virus and are not performing other functions, nor are they treating other patients. The same is happening elsewhere in Europe. Therefore, I want to emphasise once again that the virus in this case “played a completely different role”, a so-called “red herring” that draws attention. Therefore, everything must now be carefully monitored.

Let us talk about financial policy, especially since an urgent, virtual meeting of EU finance ministers was called just this week to try to “save Europe”, but they achieved nothing. Northern countries, for example, do not want so-called “corona bonds” because they understand that they will have to pay interest for the “manana” (“tomorrow”) specialists of the southern countries. Eurozone commander Mario Centeno is still trying to free his hands regarding the Northern countries and force them to pay, especially for the de facto bankrupt Italians, whose debt is already 133 per cent of GDP! What does this “rescue” look like from the sidelines?

Of course, “coronavirus bonds” will not save anything, they will only delay the crash a little. The EU leadership and all so-called financial institutions have seen this debt situation before – both with the Italian and French economies, and even without the virus, nothing good was happening ... The constant deferral of serious decisions has led to a situation that cannot continue and is making European politics traditionally “sad”. Many are now dreaming of “how to postpone the crisis”, but in reality, it is exactly the same situation as with the quarantine – you cannot defeat the virus itself with a quarantine, but you can slightly delay its mass spread. Well, okay, let's assume Italy's collapse is delayed for a year or two! And... what then? The Greeks sold their islands and ports to the Chinese. What do the Italians have to sell? Perhaps the Chinese will buy the Pantheon or the Roman Colosseum from them? That's a joke, but the question is much more serious: what next? Because if this economic folly continues, the funds received from “coronavirus bonds” will soon run out and in five years time everyone will be in the same place again. Let everyone try to answer this question for themselves. For example, in Spain, they are already thinking about paying benefits to every citizen – a certain amount of money would be paid to everyone every month just for being born into this world. In response to the question – where will the money come from – the answer is: from the rich people, and it would be very healthy if they shared with the poor! The poor would continue to buy the sausages that the rich produce, thus the rich would compensate for their losses.

But this is where the big difference in Europe is visible: on one side of the sofa lie the “manana” specialists, who spend all day racking their brains over where to get money on debt (which they still do not refuse), and on the other side are the northerners, who work, earn, but do not want to share. How can such different interests be reconciled? After all, after the 2009 crisis, the northerners cut their budgets and appetites, several banks went bankrupt, but the European south continued to increase its debts: the Italians still pay pensions at 91% – that is a level that even the Germans or the Dutch cannot afford ...

It would not be worth looking for justice here ... Let's be direct: the EU leadership, as the main regulator of this process, is not performing its function. The same applies to the Greeks, because even the Germans “turned a blind eye” to the very strange Greek economy – money was given and given to the Greeks until the crisis escalated to the point of raising the question of the Greeks' future place in the European Union. Money was granted again, well aware that the Italians, the French and the Spaniards were already queuing up for it... The situation is the same right now; it is explosive, because all countries in the European Union are oriented towards ostensibly common standards. In this case, we have to think about our own situation – it is still possible to somehow get rid of this nonsense and, of course, we must try to do so.