“Europe is a garden. We have built a garden. Everything works. It is the best combination of political freedom, economic prosperity and social cohesion that humanity has been able to build. The rest of the world is not exactly a garden. Most of the rest of the world is a jungle, and the jungle could invade the garden“.
The head of EU diplomacy, Joseph Borrellis in the eye of the hurricane for these controversial words he uttered last week in the opening speech of the European Diplomatic Academy in Bruges. the same week that publicly scolded his own ambassadors and he was tongue-tied about the response the Western axis would give to Vladimir Putin if he uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
“Are you okay?” a journalist snapped at Borrell on Monday. The correspondent of New York Times in Brussels has defined him as a “Spanish socialist septuagenarian” in detailed information about the controversy in which he alludes to a “colonial language” by the former Spanish Foreign Minister.
Follow the thread. What a terrible analogy Mr Borrell has made. Surely history and our own lived experience teaches us that no part of the world is free from violence. https://t.co/UpSdTrT8oQ
— Bob Rae (@BobRae48) October 16, 2022
The President’s Spokesperson Ursula von der Leyen ensures that the German maintains its confidence in Borrell and he has not corrected his metaphor either, but the incident has multiplied the rumors in Brussels about the bad relationship between the two.
Basically, the controversies raised by the head of European diplomacy are an expression of impotence. His position has hardly any real power (foreign policy decisions are adopted unanimously by the 27 member states) and he competes with Von der Leyen herself and with the president of the European Council, Charles Michael.
With nothing to lose at this point in his career, Borrell is not satisfied with the lowest common denominator and with his frequent high-sounding statements tries to bring the spotlight to his position and drag the EU towards more ambitious positions.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Arab Emirates has crossed out his words about the garden and the jungle of “racist”, “inappropriate” and “discriminatory”. “Is Africa still a jungle whose only function is to furnish others’ garden as it has painfully been in the past?” Redwan Hussein tweeted, adviser to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia.
[Borrell abronca a sus diplomáticos: “Me entero más de lo que pasa leyendo prensa que vuestros informes”]
“What a terrible analogy Mr. Borrell has made. History and our own experience teach us that no part of the world is free from violence,” says Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, BobRae.
Accusations of neo-colonialism and a shift to the radical right have forced Borrell onto the defensive. “I do not understand the interpretation that has been given to what I said and I certainly do not share the accusations that this is an imperialist, white supremacist or retrogressive message,” the EU’s High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy said on Monday.
In addition, Borrell has written a long article on his blog to justify himself, entitled “On Metaphors and Geopolitics”. “In recent days, there has been some controversy about some of the words I addressed to the students of the College of Europe. Some of what I said has been taken out of context and biased. I would like to clarify what I said to avoid misunderstandings,” writes the head of European diplomacy.
“The ‘garden’ and ‘jungle’ metaphor is not my invention. There are those who hate it because it has been used, among others, by American neoconservatism, an ideology with which I have nothing to do,” says Borrell.
[Borrell avisa a Putin de que si usa armas nucleares contra Ucrania su ejército será “aniquilado”]
“In fact, it is a concept that has been present in academic debate for decades, since it raises a basic question that we face every day: should the international order be based on principles accepted by all regardless of their power? , or should, on the contrary, be based on the law of the strongest that we usually call ‘the law of the jungle’?“, continues the head of European diplomacy.
“Unfortunately, today’s world looks more and more like a ‘jungle’ and less and less like a ‘garden’since in many parts of the world the law of the strongest is eroding international norms”, points out the former Spanish Foreign Minister.
“Some have misunderstood the metaphor as ‘colonial Eurocentrism’. I apologize if anyone has been offended. Throughout my life I have been totally opposed to any form of contempt or racism towards any person. In my current role, I have tried to tell Europeans not to retreat into our world of relative comfort by trying to protect themselves by building walls. And I have appealed to them to get more involved with the rest of the world, with an open spirit, and looking at it as it is and not from a Eurocentric prism,” says Borrell.
