What is Europe? A Debate Reignited by an English Speech

What is Europe? A Debate Reignited by an English Speech

Is Spain European? Is Russia? And what is a blonde announcer doing rallying against the tyranny of the Spanish Empire in English? These three questions lie at the heart of a single debate. The catalyst was a speech attributed to a Dutch figure—seen by some as an AI-generated fabrication, by others as a real person—who championed the Netherlands' war against Spain as the country's foundational myth, rather than the German occupation of the 20th century. From there, everything else trinc: who decides which country is European and who is left out.

An English Speech on Spanish Tyranny

The first objection was linguistic. If the message aimed to champion Europe against the Anglo-Saxon world, why deliver it in English? The criticism pointed to a declaration of submission to the Anglo-Saxon cultural yoke, the same language that today drives institutions, technology, and markets. The irony, another line of analysis noted, is that one doesn't even need to belong to the European Union for English to end up dominating.

The second objection was historical. One side of the debate argued that the Netherlands has the right to claim its war of independence against Spain: it was their foundational myth, far more galvanizing than their role in World War II, where, according to one participant, the country did not emerge particularly gloriously. Another bloc, however, saw this gesture as a direct attack on Spain fueled by contempt. Amidst mutual accusations of servility and inferiority complexes, a core idea emerged: the narrative each country chooses for itself rarely aligns with its neighbor's.

Is Spain its Own Continent or Part of Europe?

The issue shifted towards geography and identity. Some argue that Spain, due to its history, language, and cultural weight, forms its own space within the continent; some even ironically refer to it as a limbo, a continent in itself. Conversely, the opposing thesis is stark: you are either European or you are not, and if you are, you don't stop being so at will, just as you don't stop being right-handed by wishing it.

The argument is supported by an inconvenient truth for narratives of purity: between Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese, or Greeks and the rest of the continent, there is more continuity than rupture. A Spaniard could pass for a Norwegian and vice versa, with nuances in height, skin tone, or eye tonalidad. European homogeneity, they contend, contrasts with the diversity of Asia, where a Japanese, a Korean, and a Malay are not interchangeable. The dividing question is where to draw the internal border.

Russia, the East, and the Border of Europe

The other major divide was the East. One current asserted that Russia is European even though it invaded Ukraine or was communist: geography and culture are not erased by political change. Another recalled that German supremacist discourse itself historically excluded Slavic peoples, considering them almost alien to the continent, to justify its eastward expansion.

This point entangled the debate with a contradiction difficult to sustain: one cannot simultaneously be an enthusiast of Russia and the staunchest defender of a strong Europe if both projects clash in concrete interests. Geopolitics ultimately weighed more than culture. A natural border, the one separating the continent from America, also served as an imaginary containment wall against what is perceived as a loss of identity.

Hispanidad as the "True Europe"

In contrast to the institutional Europe of Brussels, one part of the debate championed Hispanic America as the true heir to European values. The reasoning: before being called Europe, these lands were known as Christendom, and the values presumed today have their roots in a Christianity that Spain and its former colonies allegedly preserved better than the rest of the continent.

The rebuttal was swift. The modern concept of Europe is not a Spanish invention, another intervention recalls; it originates from a classic text by Novalis written in the late 18th century and published around 1825, twenty years after the author's death, where "Christendom" and "Europe" appear almost as synonyms. In that light, Hispanidad would not be the European essence, but a particular interpretation of an external concept.

Demographics as the Backdrop

Beneath the exchange of historical arguments lies a specific concern: the idea of a culturally ancient Europe that is diluted by the arrival of populations from other continents. Those who advocated for a closed European identity stumbled again on the same obstacle: neither Spain nor the East fit into a narrow mold. The discussion about the past functioned, in reality, as a battlefield for the present.

The end of the cycle brought no consensus. The initial question returns, and no one answers it: if Europe is a geography, a culture, or a club with rules, then Spain, Russia, and a large part of the continent never belonged to the same map. And yet, everyone continues to use it.

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