Belgium can no longer rely solely on soft power – Mayor of Mechelen
Belgium is rethinking the threats facing the continent, but time is needed to change the public mindset toward crises.
This was emphasized by Bart Somers, Mayor of the Belgian city of Mechelen, in an interview with Ukrinform.
“We can no longer rely solely on soft power. We need hard power and we have to be prepared and take on responsibility. You see it with GDP expenses for military. Previously, we didn’t invest in our army that was a caricature force. Now the buildup is going really fast,” Somers said.
He explained that for Belgians, the idea of war or serious upheaval had long felt very distant.
“With the fall of the Soviet Union, there was a widespread sense that the great ideological struggle had been settled, and that liberal democracy – together with human rights, prosperity and liberal values – would gradually take root everywhere. In that context, many young people reasoned that joining the army no longer made sense. War felt like something that belonged to the past,” the mayor noted.
According to him, that is why today’s reality has become a harsh wake-up call for society. “Now that the threat is clearly out there again, we need a real mental shift. We have to prepare people, and make them feel resilient and strong in the face of threats – whatever form they may take,” Somers believes.
He noted that more and more young people are choosing to join the army, and their numbers are growing.
“There is something fundamentally changing in this world, and we have to be prepared. It may take time, but small steps need to be taken,” the mayor said.
Somers also said that Mechelen has become the second city in Belgium to create a platform where people can join a voluntary emergency response corps in the event of natural disasters. There are also courses that teach residents how to provide first aid to the injured.
“We are not thinking immediately about war, but those are the things we must do. People need to learn things. We live in a crazy world where we have a brutal dictator Putin and besides that the uncertainty brought by the United States where Donald Trump says different things every day and seems to not embrace the same values as we do. So, we start realizing that we are on our own in Europe,” the mayor stated.
He recalled that five years ago a certain pacifism prevailed in Belgium, “but now we see the atrocities, we see the weapons Russia employs, and we start to understand that a counterforce is required. This thinking is really present in the political world, and starting to develop in society.”
He added that even larger countries such as Germany and France now understand that it is impossible to be safe alone.
“We need each other, so we have to integrate. Even many of the political forces who used to be isolationist now root for unification. Interesting discussions are now ongoing, such as do we need to buy those F35s or should we produce our own? Of course, this will all take time but we have to understand that our struggle is only ours,” Somers said.
As reported by Ukrinform, European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius believes that, given the shift in U.S. defense priorities, Europe must intensify efforts to achieve greater defense autonomy and work in cooperation with Ukraine.
Photo: Mechelen City Hall