Europe’s treaties leave no room for dictatorship in a member state, if we actually enforce them
All Europeans should read a speech Koen Lenaerts, president of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, delivered to law students in Leiden in mid-June, writes Caroline de Gruyter. It is a speech about European values and the fundamental place they occupy in Europe’s legal system.
Europe always prides itself on its values. But what is the actual state of these much-lauded ‘European values’? These days, there are plenty of reasons to ask ourselves that question.
Here are just a few examples, collected in the last few weeks.
First, there was the Swiss-Italian president of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, who rescinded a red card shown to an American footballer.
Then, of course, there was Marine Le Pen, the French far-right eurosceptic politician who while found guilty on appeal in the biggest fraud case the European Parliament has ever seen, she still wants to run for president because in her view the voters should be the real judges: ‘The French will have the final say.’
Also, journalists at Hungary’s public broadcaster revealed that during the Orbán years they received an email from a minister every morning with detailed instructions on news stories they were (or were not) permitted to cover.
Last example: now that Israel and the US have resumed bombardments on Iran, European citizens are complaining about high fuel prices, not human rights violations.
In this context all Europeans should read a speech Koen Lenaerts, president of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, delivered to law students in Leiden in mid-June.
It is a speech about European values and the fundamental place they occupy in Europe’s legal system.
Lenaerts begins with a question, “whether there is room for a dictatorship in Europe, which would censor media outlets, discriminate against minorities, tell women that their only purpose in life is to bear children, and upset the national system of checks and balances by, for example, undermining the independence of the judiciary.”
Caroline de Gruyter is a Europe correspondent and columnist for the Dutch newspaper NRC. She is also a columnist for Foreign Policy and De Standaard. This piece is adapted from a recent column in NRC. Her new book Zondagskinderen [Children of Fortune], about Europeans and war, was published in February 2026.
