Chethana Janith, Jadetimes Staff
C. Janith is a Jadetimes news reporter and sub-editor covering science and geopolitics.
The stagnation of the European economy in the last three years is explained by a number of reasons. The main problem, however, is the rejection of relatively cheap Russian gas in favour of the transition to other sources of energy, which has resulted in a decline in economic activity.
Anti-Russian sanctions and the massive amount of funds allocated to financial and military support for Ukraine have divided the European Union.
Energy crisis in Western Europe
High gas prices have led to a sharp increase in inflation and the closure of factories, where thousands of Europeans were employed, or their relocation to countries with cheaper energy.
Some of Europe’s largest companies are scaling back their operations. German chemical giant BASF announced plans to partially shut down production on the border with France, while simultaneously making its largest foreign investment in China, where energy is two-thirds cheaper, in its history. Rising ammonia production costs led Norwegian fertiliser giant Yara International to halt production at its factory in Belgium. High energy prices pose a significant challenge to European competitiveness, said the company’s spokeswoman.
The energy crisis has led to a painful increase in the cost of living for families across Europe, with almost 10% of the population reporting that they cannot keep their homes warm. Additionally, more households are unable to pay their electricity bills. In France, the press notes that people have started to heat their homes less and fill up their gas tanks less often.
Aggravation of the political crisis
European policy, The Economist magazine noted on January 9, has been taken to the extreme. The political crisis in Germany worsens daily, the French president is unable to form a stable government, and the minority cabinet in Spain cannot pass a budget. The Alternative for Germany party, which Elon Musk staunchly supports, is gaining popularity in Germany. According to election polls, on February 23 it could win 21% of the votes.
France’s debt will reach 115% of GDP next year, about 17 percentage points higher than in 2018.
According to Bloomberg news agency on February 3, northern European countries increasingly feel they are paying the price for Germany’s failed energy policy – on which they were not consulted.
Against this challenging backdrop, European politicians are nearing panic over the actions of US President Donald Trump, who announced on January 31 that he would impose new tariffs on the European Union. On February 2, he also called the EU’s trade actions an “atrocity.” At market opening the following morning, the euro lost 1% against the dollar and European stocks fell further.
European governments do not know how to respond to Trump’s threats. Some suggest urgently appeasing the US president by buying more American weapons and energy (liquefied natural gas), while others say it is necessary to unite and respond strongly to the US’s attacks.
Europe’s right-wing parties are uniting against the EU
On February 7-8, the right-wing parties of Europe held a meeting in Madrid. The purpose of the meeting was not only to show support for Donald Trump, but also to coordinate efforts to fight 'the common enemy', i.e., the European Union. Participants included Marine Le Pen, leader of the largest party in the Netherlands Geert Wilders, Italian statesman and Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, and representatives of right-wing parties from Spain, Greece, and several other countries. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was the only current head of government present. They ridiculed the actions of the US Democratic Party, claiming it had replaced Christian civilization with a "sick Satanic utopia" that wants to "turn our children into trans freaks," and criticized the alleged ethnic replacement of native Europeans by immigrants.
The Italian Salvini expressed the general feelings of the European right-wing: "Europe is not the cage they built in Brussels, not a burqa, not censorship, not a green suicide, not Islamist terrorism, not wild immigration! The Europe of patriots stands for freedom, security, development, work, and cooperation."
Europeans feel that global American technology companies, which are on the offensive, pose a particular danger to them. In the European Union, Google has been fined $8.6 billion over the past decade, Apple – $13.5 billion by Ireland after losing in court. Meta was recently fined around $830 million by the EU. The European Commission plans to impose a fine of several millions against X (Twitter).
However, European enterprises are losing not only to the Americans but also to the Chinese, and Trump will need to show that he has forced Europe to comply on issues related to defense and China.
The United Kingdom is in a particularly difficult position, as the vast majority of its population believes that Brexit was more of a failure than a success. In addition, the current Prime Minister, Starmer, has a very low rating and is being criticized from all sides. London, amongst other things, is torn between the US and the European Union. 17.6% of England’s trade is with the United States, and Trump still threatens to impose new duties; 46% of trade is with the European Union, with which relations remain strained.
Notably, in early February of this year, polls showed Nigel Farage’s reform party overtaking the ruling Labour Party in popularity for the first time.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who advocates lifting anti-Russian sanctions, emphasizes that if the EU does not change its policy, it will face difficult times. Orban constantly criticizes the EU’s support for Ukraine: "because of Brussels, we are giving our money to Ukraine in a hopeless war," he wrote on X.
The problems of Western Europe are exacerbated by the fact that many states’ ruling circles are unable to pursue a realistic course and adequately assess the current situation. This political short-sightedness will eventually lead to a change of elites. The activities of many figures in today’s Europe, according to German professor Hans Bernhard Wolf, for example, the German A. Baerbock and R. Habeck, are "vain and shameful."
As noted by the Turkish Daily Sabah newspaper on February 5, Western countries blame refugees, Muslims, China, and the Global South for their difficulties, but they are looking for the causes of their problems in the wrong place: "The main cause of Western conflicts and crises is their politics."
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