"The sovereignty of nations is non-negotiable", says Marine Le Pen.
Except that Trump just showed that it very much is.
Le Pen instinctively understands that what has transpired today is an implicit threat to her own petty nationalist project. Maduro's talk of anti imperialism and sovereignty wasn't worth the paper it was printed upon. It was pure fiction, kept alive for as long as no great power, especially the US, was willing to destroy the illusion.
The same goes for the sovereignty and self determination of all nations. Fictions, narratives that are only valid as long as they're being ignored. True law, true principles are defended by hard power; the violation of real principles provokes real consequences. There will be no consequences for the US for kidnapping Maduro. Not even Venezuelan allies such as Russia or China will sanction the US.
International competition over resources, influence and markets will forcibly make one of the participants in this fictional order blink and destroy the illusion. It's not unlike a bubble like the NFT bubble: these things only have value as long as everyone pretends they are valuable. As soon as a significant amount of people have decided they do not have value, the bubble bursts.
We are now living in the era where too many actors have called the bluff on international law. And you yourself have contributed, Marine—you yourself have praised the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and called it a correction of historical injustice.
Small nations can only survive and be sovereign at the mercy of great powers. In the 19th century, the establishment of Greece, Bulgaria and many others were only possible through the sanction of the great powers. At one point, Egypt was more powerful than the Ottoman Empire but was forced into vassalage by the great powers to protect international stability. This is the world we are living in now again. This is the reality of a multipolar world.
Le Pen instinctively understands what this means: No European nation can survive and compete in this world on its own. Outside of France with its nuclear weapons, none can ensure their sovereignty out of their own strength, and none can rely on international law to protect it. The natural conclusion is more intense European cooperation, a stronger EU, an EU army and turning the EU into a great power of its own—Europe coming together to protect Europe in the jungle of the international arena, protecting all Europeans from being gobbled up by great powers.
Le Pen desperately doesn't want people to make this natural conclusion as it would delegtimise her unending fight against European solidarity or Europeanism as a whole.
Le Pen thus chooses to perpetuate the fictions of international law and national sovereignty, because facing reality is not good for her. She is seducing voters with a world that no longer exists and will not exist again.
Europe deserves a determined movement that will build a Europe that is well equipped to survive in the jungle. What we need is brave visionaries, not cowards that want to turn back the clock.
Il existait mille raisons de condamner le régime de Nicolas Maduro : communiste, oligarchique et autoritaire, il faisait peser sur son peuple, depuis de trop longues années, une chape de plomb qui a plongé des millions de Vénézuéliens dans la misère - quand il ne les contraignait pas à l'exil.
Mais il existe une raison fondamentale pour s'opposer au changement de régime que les États-Unis viennent de provoquer au Venezuela. La souveraineté des États n'est jamais négociable, quelle que soit leur taille, quelle que soit leur puissance, quel que soit leur continent. Elle est inviolable et sacrée.
Renoncer à ce principe aujourd'hui pour le Venezuela, pour n'importe quel État, reviendrait à accepter demain notre propre servitude. Ce serait donc un péril mortel, alors que le 21e siècle est déjà le théâtre de bouleversements géopolitiques majeurs qui font planer sur l'humanité le risque permanent de la guerre et du chaos.
Il ne nous reste plus qu'à espérer, face à cette situation, que la parole soit rendue au plus tôt au peuple vénézuélien. C'est à lui que doit revenir le pouvoir de définir, souverainement et librement, le futur qu'il souhaite se donner en tant que Nation.