And, of course, the crooked politicians here in Europe are actually following America more than China in this.

That is much less the case then it might appear. Out of the Top10 largest EV makers three are European(Volkswagen, BMW and Stellantis). When you look at wind, Europe has a few of the largest companies in the world. Europe is also basically the only place even attempting to compete with China in batteries, since Trump cut US support for that industry. There are plenty of more niche industries as well, in which Europe has some very strong companies.

Thank god no European family of significance has ever done anything like this.

Not the one in Venezuela, but Cuba. Without the oil from Venezuela Cuba has an insane problem.