By Daniel Frost
The sting of overlapping crises just will not go away in Europe, it has become part of the air people breathe. In Paris, you see high school and university students out on the streets, throwing up barricades and walking with trade unions. They are fed up with falling apart classrooms and a cost of living that is crushing anyone without family money. Not far away, Spain saw public outrage explode after 87 year old Maricarmen Abascal died, evicted from the home she had lived in for seventy years, the country’s housing crisis played out in tragedy, and people saw it as a warning. It is not just Paris and Madrid, either. In cities from Rome to Lisbon, more and more ordinary people are marching, their anger bubbling up from lives marked by insecurity, rents shooting sky high, the safety net worn thin, public services breaking under the weight of neglect.
But for all the noise and struggle in the streets, the political class seems stuck, unable or maybe just unwilling to do much. Centrist governments have boxed themselves in. Here is the thing: old school political parties spent decades managing unrest with a cynical trick. Whenever things fell apart, schools falling into disrepair, hospitals packed beyond capacity, housing impossible to afford, they did not take the blame. Instead, they pointed fingers at migrants. Both the so called liberal economic elite and the far right found it really convenient to blame outsiders. The refrain was always the same: Islam, open borders, demographic change, those must be the culprits, not our policies or the rich making off with the gains. The idea was simple: keep the public busy blaming someone else instead of demanding real answers from those in charge.
That playbook has failed, big time. Instead of sidetracking the extremes, the centrists just ended up buying into their story. In fact, by accepting the idea that society’s decline comes from outsiders, not unchecked financial greed or government neglect, the establishment handed the far right its most powerful tool. Suddenly, everything from packed up hospitals to missing apartments is the fault of immigrants and Muslim communities. With that groundwork laid, people go searching for strongmen who promise to clean it all up. You see it with Marine Le Pen and others, they do not even have to propose fixing the economy for average folks. All they do is point at protests, bark about a made up threat to native culture, call for more police or tougher crackdowns, and promise to bring back order. The right wing radicals, once at the edges, are now reaping all the benefits of this carefully fostered panic.
By accepting the idea that societal decline comes from outsiders rather than unchecked financial greed or government neglect, the establishment handed the far right its most powerful tool.
None of this scapegoating exists in a vacuum. The truth is, Europe’s underlying problems are much bigger. Since the 1990s, Europe has seen its factories hollow out, losing ground to countries that can make things faster, cheaper, or simply with less red tape. Changes in how people buy and use things, the rise of tech, and relentless spikes in energy prices have all hammered Europe’s industrial backbone. Meanwhile, United States protectionism and aggressive Chinese industrial subsidies have squeezed Europe into a corner, stripping away its leverage. Empty slogans about making Europe great again or defending Western civilization just cover up a lack of any real plan. Instead, politicians peddle fears, bash religious minorities, and put up fences, never mind that the engine driving the middle class has stalled out.
Now, add the war in Ukraine and the picture gets even worse. The conflict has Europe spooked. Leaders talk about rebuilding defense, and maybe they have a point, security is a real concern. Yet as money pours into the military, social spending that once held communities together is quietly starved. The numbers are staggering: European defense budgets are at their highest ever, but inefficiencies mean much of the money does not even stay on the continent. According to the European Commission, most recent defense spending, something like three quarters of it, ends up with companies in America or other countries, not in building up Europe’s own industry. Billions are spent snapping up jets, missiles, and artillery from abroad, while local budgets for schools, clinics, or housing are slashed or frozen.
This leaves governments with an impossible trade off. To keep up with defense demands and stay within tight EU fiscal rules, they end up squeezing every other part of the budget. Healthcare, education, public housing, pensions, these get cut or stuck on pause. The state expects citizens to tough it out in the name of national security, all while funneling cash to foreign arms makers and spreading the same old myth that migrants are draining welfare.
European defense budgets are at historic highs, yet most of the money ends up with foreign companies rather than building up domestic infrastructure or local social services.
It is a devastating contradiction. Imagine being a student told your school cannot afford printers or heat, or a pensioner who cannot get by, only to hear that there is apparently money for fighter jets or big contracts for surveillance drones and border walls. That kind of hypocrisy rots trust at the core, it is not just about external threats or buzzwords like Islamic integration. The real crisis is inside: societies splitting apart because of political double talk, money for weapons but never for people, and structural racism woven through policy after policy.
People see through it. The old habit of blaming outside enemies to justify more sacrifice at home is wearing thin. Security issues are real enough, and Russia’s war deserves attention, but all those warnings do not lower rent or fill a fridge. So anti establishment parties on both the left and right step in to fill the gap. The far right turns the crisis into a culture war, convincing working people that their neighbor with brown skin is the problem, not the faceless landlord or stagnant wages. And because the middle sticks to old ways, dodging economic solutions, refusing to challenge xenophobic dog whistles, the angry rhetoric wins out.
Europe’s leaders, honestly, are playing a dangerous game. Treating unrest like a problem for riot police and harsher migration laws just cranks up tension. When folks get met with truncheons and tear gas, instead of respect and answers, democratic institutions start to lose whatever moral standing they have left.
Escaping this downward spiral takes courage, a break from knee jerk blame games and a willingness to actually invest in society’s backbone. Europe cannot hope for a stable future if the middle class keeps shrinking and the continent becomes a fortress fueled by ethnic anxiety. Lasting security comes from affordable housing, robust public services, good schools, and a fair shot for young people, not just from tanks and watchtowers. If centrists keep backing military spending and scapegoating minorities rather than putting their own people first, the politics of resentment will swallow European democracy whole.
About the Author
Daniel Frost is a Foreign affairs columnist specializing in global geopolitics, European security, and strategic policy.