This is the last political season of the current EU leadership, its regime and its policies. In a European Union riddled with crises, change must come, Pesti Srácok columnist Botond Bálint writes.
Even the ruling liberal elite admits that there are demographic crises across Europe. It is also obvious that several countries struggle with economic crises and in yet other countries the political system is far from stable.
In addition, the continent’s most affluent states must also dismantle the vestiges of the previous multicultural idealism – but these countries no longer control all the people on their territory. Put more bluntly, they cannot even enforce their own laws as they lack the police and military forces to do so.
Over the past twenty years, the ruling liberal elite has gotten used to a state of affairs where neither the media, nor the reality questioned their so-called “liberal values” and their claim that these would lead towards the creation of an ideal society. Were it not for the 2008 global economic and financial crisis, Europe may well have become yet another federal state of the U.S., quite possibly led by a Romanian Social-Democrat at the helm of some committee.
While liberalism is currently the dominant force in the European Parliament, where even the European People’s Party must make concessions to them, this cannot remain so. It is quite clear that after Juncker no rational conservative will again make the mistake of electing a mentally ill alcoholic, they may well choose some very talented deranged person, who will announce a nice program to avoid urgent reforms or another crisis. The EU and the liberal governments certainly aren’t equipped to handle such a crisis.
“For the happy and quiet years of bliss are always behind us, never ahead.”
The current European economic and political system may well limp on for years, possibly even a decade, but the signs and trends point towards a weaker Europe. Based on its economic strength and military potential, Europe could be the world’s third or fourth largest power. Instead it has shown that it is incapable of self-defense, buying and bargaining its way to security.
This Europe is less and less the guarantee of security, but it rather creates the problems which we could solve just fine in a Central European defense system.
