Introduction

Future historians may well ask what led to the decline and ruin of Europe. The actions and decisions of key leaders in recent decades have played a pivotal role, with policies that have shaped the continent’s current challenges.

Angela Merkel: Architect of European Transformation

Dr. Tilak K. Doshi of the Daily Skeptic identifies Angela Merkel as a central figure in Europe’s troubles. In 2015, Merkel oversaw a massive wave of immigration into Europe, primarily from the Muslim world. Simultaneously, she implemented net zero policies, decommissioning nuclear power and removing fossil fuels from the German industrial base. This dual focus—shutting down nuclear and coal power plants in favor of wind and solar energy—initiated a process that is now undermining the German economy.

Merkel’s rationale for accepting millions of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa was to address Europe’s low fertility rates and to bring in “doctors and engineers” to support the economy. However, Doshi observes that Germany and the European Union instead received an influx of fighting-age males, often crime-prone and resistant to assimilation, placing additional strain on already overstretched welfare systems. As current Chancellor Merz acknowledged, “The welfare state that we have today can no longer be financed with what we produce in the economy.”

Doshi concludes that both social and economic consequences were predictable: crime surges and the rise of parallel societies in cities such as Cologne and Berlin, as well as elsewhere in Europe, including Malmo in Sweden and Southport in England. Industry has increasingly relocated to the United States and Asia in search of affordable energy, leaving Germany—once Europe’s workshop—facing stagnation. Despite these outcomes, Merkel was celebrated by Brussels and mainstream media as the moral conscience of Europe.

Ursula Von Der Leyen and the European Commission

Ursula Von Der Leyen’s tenure as Germany’s defense minister was marked by inefficiency, with the Bundeswehr operating only a handful of tanks and aircrafts. Yet, she now holds the unelected and unaccountable position of President of the European Commission. In her recent “State of the European Union” address, Von Der Leyen reaffirmed her commitment to the “green transformation,” even as European industries falter under electricity costs that are triple those in the United States. Germany’s deindustrialization continues apace, while Britain, under both Conservative and Labour governments, aligns with the EU’s climate and immigration policies and shuts down vital steelworks, refineries, and offshore energy operations.

Despite these trends, Von Der Leyen’s rhetoric invokes economic competitiveness and energy security, even as policies restrict the fossil fuel sector that would otherwise deliver growth and affordable energy. As Doshi remarks, Europe has become a civilization sacrificing its productive capacity at the altar of Gaia. Von Der Leyen also criticizes elected officials like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Slovakia’s Robert Fico, who resist unvetted immigration policies and defend national traditions. Orbán, for instance, is branded an “ally of Russia” for importing affordable gas and prioritizing Hungarian interests, while Fico faces similar condemnation for refusing mass migration and the latest ‘woke’ gender dogmas. Their insistence on national interests and skepticism of EU unity mark them as heretics to the European creed.

Centralization, Censorship, and Loss of Freedom

The European Union’s drive for tighter control over national politics has led to troubling developments, including the nullification of elections in Romania, interference in Moldova’s elections, and proposals for government access to private internet communications. Von Der Leyen’s push for net zero policies and increased censorship has contributed to a less free Europe, burdened by bureaucratic rules and unsustainable economic and energy policies.

A Crisis of Civilization

Europe’s difficulties are not merely economic—they reflect a deeper crisis of civilization. Doshi argues that elites such as Von Der Leyen have lost faith in the fundamental tenets of Western civilization, prioritizing sentiment over substance. The tendency to replace engineers with activists in energy ministries and to elevate failed ministers to international office has proved disastrous. The economic cost of such virtue signaling is severe: Europe’s electricity and gas prices are among the highest globally, crippling its manufacturing sector. Major industries are relocating to countries with more rational energy policies, while Europe’s share of global industrial output declines and its welfare states consume ever more of a shrinking economic pie.

Inversion of Priorities and the Cost to the Working Class

Europe’s decline is a result of deliberate choices favoring bureaucratic globalism over national aspirations. Doshi highlights Von Der Leyen’s recent call for multilateral development banks to focus on climate change rather than poverty, despite opposition from the United States. This inversion of priorities illustrates how Europe’s elites perceive the main problem of the poor as insufficient decarbonization, rather than lack of opportunity. Yet, evidence indicates that economic growth—not emissions cuts—remains the most reliable path to environmental improvement and human welfare.

The true victims are the working class, who bear the burden of high energy bills and face a future of mounting debts and a declining civilization. Doshi argues that Europe must rediscover the virtues of Western civilization that once enabled it to prosper and remain free and must reverse the momentum of its decline.