A Mayo View: Irish lessons to be learned from Europe's ongoing frustrations

The new year is barely underway and our friends across the Atlantic Ocean, fatigued perhaps by their own social and political problems, are already writing off the future of Europe.

A critique by Lee Hockstader in the Washington Post on January 1 painted a picture of Europe that served as a reality check for many of us leading relatively calm and contented lives in the west of Ireland, often regarded as far from perfect but seemingly far better off than many of our European partners.

The newspaper's experienced columnist, who has been based in Paris since 2023 after previously working in more than 40 countries during a long career, stated the continent is facing into 2025 "amid a grim pile-up of threats, its voters angry, its traditional political parties fragmented, its major economies stagnant or sluggish, its birth rates plummeting, and its eastern flank engulfed by a calamitous war."

The continent’s liberal democracies are under severe strain, not least from populist right-wing movements, he correctly observes.

The root cause for this worrying situation, he points out, is mounting frustration among 20-something voters at governments’ failure to limit immigration and promote jobs, housing and better living standards.

Quoted in the piece is Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer, acting president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a think tank.

Mr. de Hoop Scheffer stated: “There’s a disenchantment and a crisis of trust in this young generation who believe it’s not such an important thing to live in a democratic system so long as the government delivers public services, a nice economy and low energy prices.”

The article focused on the plight of Germany and France, two nations "whose muscle the continent has long relied to chart its direction but appear for now to be all but ungovernable, their centre-left and centre-right parties discredited - and the symptoms of civic ill health are multiplying."

Reference is also made to widespread worry that Europe is approaching a brink where the past’s comforting assumptions – about social stability, generous welfare benefits and broad prosperity – are fraying fast.

That sense, according to Mr. Hockstader, is deepened as Russia’s predatory threat drives up defence spending, squeezes public finances and poses dire choices.

"To modernise atrophied militaries and satisfy Donald Trump’s demand the continent shoulders more of the burden of deterring Russia, European leaders will need to rely on growth that doesn’t exist, higher taxes in already-overtaxed countries or cannibalising social programmes, that would spell political suicide.

"Alarm bells are ringing nearly everywhere – not only because of Moscow’s intensifying hybrid war of sabotage, propaganda and election interference across the continent, but also because Washington’s post-war promise of protection looks flimsier than ever as Trump prepares to return to the White House.

"Sweden’s government, so frightened of Russia that it ditched two centuries of neutrality to join NATO last year, recently mailed out a booklet, 'In Case of Crisis or War', meant to help Swedes prepare for the worst. Norway and Finland have issued similar instructions."

It's against this background of grave uncertainty and worry that Ireland's new government is in the process of being formed.

The recent general election in Ireland did not reflect the level of political upheaval being felt in other parts of the continent - but it does not mean we are immune to the problems of our neighbours.

Far from it, in fact.

But perhaps there are lessons to be learned going forward from the ills of other countries as a result of not listening to the needs of our younger generation.

In Ireland’s case, those need relate mostly to housing provision and properly rewarded jobs.