80 years after WW2: where does Europe stand?

Chancellor Merz should fly to Moscow on 9 May, says the Berliner Zeitung:

“He doesn't have to attend the big military parade on Red Square or take one of the coveted seats on the Kremlin rostrum next to Xi Jinping, Alexander Lukashenka and North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un. But how about a quiet, surprise visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier or the Ezhi Monument in Khimki, just outside Moscow - places that commemorate the victims of war instead of glorifying it. Merz would thus make a gesture of compassion without legitimising Putin's propaganda.”

Denník N criticises the Slovakian prime minister's plan to attend the military parade in Moscow:

“When Fico attends the celebrations he'll be shown the army that is currently decimating Ukraine. He will stand alongside a dictator who would like to wipe it off the face of the earth. ... [Discussing his trip to Moscow], Fico asked which other Slovakian politician has held bilateral talks with the Chinese president, the Brazilian president and the president of the Russian Federation within the space of a few hours. That's the image of himself that he aims to project. Everywhere he looks at home, the problems are mushrooming. So he diverts attention from them by playing on the anti-Western sentiment of a large part of Slovakian society while posing as a respected statesman.”

Columnist Edward Lucas explains in 15min:

“For all the emotional speeches about 'eternal glory,' the cult of the 'Great Patriotic War' is not hallowed by time. The war was a traumatising non-topic in the Soviet Union until the Brezhnev years. Only as real memories fade has the yearning for borrowed valour mushroomed. And not only in Russia. Other countries also indulge in a self-centred and selective approach to history. It is quite right to celebrate VE-Day (May 8th for the Western allies, May 9th for those who mark Nazi Germany's capitulation, a day later, to the Soviet side). But the best way to honour the sacrifice of the fallen is to reflect on the mistakes that led to the war.”

What was defended then is in jeopardy once more today, warns The Irish Times:

“On this particular anniversary, as the second World War slips from living memory and into the history books, there is reason to be fearful that its lessons are now being forgotten. The largest European military conflict since 1945 is currently being prosecuted by a Russian dictator against democratic Ukraine. Across the continent, countries are hurrying to rearm. Demagogues spouting blood and soil nationalism are resurgent. In Germany, a party that flirts openly with Nazi symbolism leads in some opinion polls. And the transatlantic alliance which underpinned the European post-war recovery is fraying.”

In El País, historian Xosé Manuel Núñez Xeixas calls for joint European commemoration:

“In the West, 8 May became a symbol of the new postwar anti-fascist consensus which was also based on selective forgetting of collaboration with the Nazi invaders in France, the Netherlands and Norway, collaboration with the deportation of Jews, or participation in volunteer units that fought alongside the Third Reich. For Germany this was [for a long time] a sad date. ... It wasn't until 1985 that Richard von Weizsäcker pointed out that Germany had also been liberated from fascism on 8 May, and that it was therefore also a date for learning from the past. ... Italy, now ensconced in anti-fascist discourse, saw the victory as its own: the myth of resistance erased any shared responsibility. ... Now that the far right is on the rise again, we should remember 8 May with a European dimension that goes beyond national commemorations.”