Political scientists are debating whether populists are the same as nationalists. In any case, they are on the rise. Will Europe experience a renaissance of nation states? Left-wing radicals warn against it. Nationality, nationalism and patriotism are dirty words for them. This was evident, for example, quite clearly during the 2024 FIFA World Cup. Left-wing radicals protested the waving of German flags after the victory of the German team, and on one banner I even read the words PATRIOTISM = NAZIONALISM.
We are therefore stretched between two poles – the selfish promotion of exclusively national interests on the one handand boundless dissolution of individual nations in the European Union on the other. The world could be tripolar (USA, China, Europe), but because Europe does not find a common language and common ideals, it plays an increasingly smaller role in the world and is unable to develop its enormous potential. The nationalist slogan “nothing but the nation” is a blatant example of selfishness and short-sightedness. People who talk like this, starting with Trump, think they are “defending national interests” when they preach national selfishness, or when they become unreadable to others. I don’t think it’s in the interest of the United States to antagonize good allies (Denmark, Canada) and provoke trade wars. If Europe is not to lose its identity, it will need the cooperation of its nations and abandonment of policies such as the Green Deal, which is destroying the European economy and to which the welfare state will fall victim.
In its long and complex history, Europe has almost succumbed to Islamic expansion twice. Europeans generally know nothing about it, because it was a long time ago and Europeans are not very interested in their own history.
The first time was probably in 732 at the Battle of Poitiers. In the seventh and eighth centuries, Islam first occupied the whole of North Africa and then the entire Iberian Peninsula. In the first part of the eighth century, they began to penetrate across the Pyrenees into what is now France, where they were stopped by Charles Martell in the aforementioned battle.
The second time was probably in the Battle of Vienna in 1683. European states – especially the Holy Roman Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian Union and the Venetian Republic – defended Vienna from the onslaught of the Turks, and this victory was the beginning of the retreat of the Ottoman Empire – a retreat that did not stop until the 20th century.
Now Europe is once again in danger. This time it is all the greater because Europe has lost the will to defend itself, while a potential enemy attacks not only from the outside, but also from within.
Do we even have a chance?
Perhaps I should have mentioned one more historical situation. It was the moment when the Persians attacked the nascent Europe. They had a huge numerical and economic superiority, but the Greeks were determined to defend themselves. When the Persians told the Greeks that they would shoot so many arrows into the air at once that the sun would not be visible to them, the Greeks replied laconically: “Then we will fight in the shadows.”
Again, I ask myself: Do we still have a chance?
There is only one people alive today that existed before the Persian Empire and that still exists today. Her existence was often in the balance. Yes, it is Israel. It is a nation that God has used as an intermediary through which He has given mankind the Bible and a Savior. The prosperity of nations is more or less proportional to the knowledge of God’s Word and a positive attitude towards the Jews. God decided this at the very beginning of Israel’s history when He said to Abraham: “I will bless those who bless thee, and curse them that curse thee. In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
At present, Jews cannot feel safe in any Western European country. And even the indigenous people of these countries cannot feel safe that way. The situation is different in countries that have broken out of the Russian orbit.
I fully agree with Douglas Murray when he says that the fate of Europe depends on the fate of Israel. If Europe continues on its current trajectory, it has no chance. If he finds a transcendent anchorage again, if he returns to the Word of God, then perhaps he still has a chance.
July 25, 2025