According to Siracusa, political scientist and dean of global futures at the Curtin University in Australia, many Europeans are unhappy with how their leaders are handling the Ukrainian conflict, as well as with issues such as the supply chain crisis, migration and “cost of living problems.”
“There's what I call a crisis in confidence in Europe. That is, ordinary people no longer have faith in their governments to do the right thing. They have little faith in them,” he explains, adding that “Without the resolution of the Ukraine crisis and without Russia returning to its European role we're going to have more of this - a lack of confidence in the leadership.”
Meanwhile, geopolitical analyst Come Carpentier de Gourdon argues that only those European leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban or Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, “who show some strength and relative independence of views,” enjoy “more popular support at home” as compared to politicians regarded as “weak figureheads controlled by the EU bureaucracy and the US through NATO.”
“In domestic fiscal and financial policies, most EU leaders are seen to implement measures and programs dictated from above and often not in the interest of the respective countries or of Europe as a whole,” he notes.
Each European country now appears to be “following a different path,” de Gourdon suggests, pointing out that this course “can only weaken the unpopular EU.”
“In any event, the EU may not survive in its present form and NATO will also have to change its approach and goals,” the analyst adds.