Did you know that in Germany they beat up the EU?
The daily newspaper Die Welt continues its barrage of scathing accusations against the EU. The Germans are starting to get really fed up, especially when, after twenty years of having the wind in their sails, the gravy train is over. Liturri's editorial
Sometimes in certain articles , it doesn't matter what is written, but who writes it and when.
Thus, we are reading, with unprecedented frequency, in Die Welt, a conservative German newspaper, outright indictments against the EU. The latest is by Roger Köppel, a Swiss journalist, media entrepreneur, commentator, and conservative politician. A former editor of Die Welt, he is a staunch supporter of Swiss sovereignty, opposed to EU membership, and critical of NATO.
In recent years, he has been accused of spreading pro-Russian narratives (he interviewed Putin and defended some Kremlin positions). In December 2025, the EU threatened to place him on the sanctions list for "Russian propaganda."
In Switzerland, he is a polarizing figure: adored by the right, considered populist and dangerous by the left.
It's therefore natural to expect criticism of Brussels, but precisely for this reason, since the articles miraculously fail to make it onto the page, it's a very important "weak signal" for understanding the hidden or overt moods of the German public—at least among those who don't vote left.
So let's take a deep dive into this article of his that appeared on December 31st.
Köppel first reflects on his changed attitude towards the European Union over the years:
I admit that thirty-five years ago, like many of my Swiss friends, I was an emotional supporter of this institution. Perhaps we suffered a bit from that typical Swiss student affliction: discomfort with a small state. But above all, we were fascinated by the noble ideals of this historic work of unification: peace, freedom, free trade, and the promise of a glorious future for us Swiss too.
Since the author is 60, we can understand him. Almost all of us twenty-five-year-olds at the time had a strong emotional connection to this new European home that promised well-being for all.
But the critical position towards integration with the EU is not long in coming:
My youthful European idealism has sadly faded long ago. From being skeptical of Swiss EU membership, I've become opposed to any further institutional rapprochement with this Brussels-based construct. I have nothing against good economic relations on an equal footing, but under no circumstances should Switzerland submit to EU laws, judges, and sanctions.
Let's say that so far, Switzerland—a country with insignificant economic dimensions compared to Italy—is one of many examples of how, by focusing on specific strengths, even a small country can prosper. In short, Switzerland is the classic "big paintbrush," which works much better than the "large paintbrush."
Köppel compares his vision to that of US Vice President J.D. Vance:
I'm experiencing the same thing as US Vice President J.D. Vance. I too see this EU as a growing threat to Europe, a much greater danger than China or Russia.
We've said it before and we'll say it again: a dysfunctional EU is a terrible ally for the US, which, for now, still sees the costs of dismantling the EU as greater than the costs of its current (poor) functioning. But these are calculations that could change…
And we come to the sore point, the sanction against Jacques Baud as a violation of freedom of expression:
The EU is punishing Jacques Baud with harsh personal sanctions for exercising his European human right to freedom of expression. Baud has not violated any law, he has not broken any rules, and even if the accusation of spreading Russian propaganda were true—which it absolutely is not—it would not be a crime punishable by sanctions from an institution that calls itself democratic and based on the rule of law.
We'd say it's all there. Pretty self-explanatory.
And he concludes with an unappealable thrust, contrasting the EU's current behavior with that of the past during the Cold War:
Only dictatorships and autocratic regimes punish unwanted verbal interventions. Even during the Cold War, neither the EU nor Germany banned Soviet newspapers. No one would have thought of arresting or sanctioning a left-wing commentator for spreading Moscow's point of view. Evidently, people still believed in the superiority of their own judgments.
Here, too, any comment seems superfluous. These words serve to illustrate the extremely dangerous course the EU is taking, in an attempt to save itself and perpetuate itself. But, like all human things, there is always a beginning and an end.
(Excerpt from Giuseppe Liturri's newsletter )
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/germania-critiche-ue/ on Sat, 10 Jan 2026 06:12:04 +0000.