The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: The Collapse of Europe’s Socialist Experiment

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

Mass protests are erupting in Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands over unchecked migration and crime. Leaders like German Chancellor Friedrich Merz admit that their welfare states can no longer sustain massive entitlement spending for migrants who entered illegally.   Victor Davis Hanson lays out why Europe’s future hangs in the balance and what steps it must take to restore stability, security, and common sense on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “The whole socialist paradigm is not producing goods and service that allow such general entitlements. The borders are insecure. Illegal immigrants are not assimilated, acculturated, integrated into the German, French, European body politic. And they're gonna have a terrible time spending 5% of GDP to defend themselves. This is in addition to having to lower their $200 billion surplus with the United States. “We know what Europe has to do. It has to return to commonsense energy policies; use their natural gas, use oil, to the extent they have it; build nuclear plants; be competitive on the world market, in terms of energy cost. They need to secure their borders. They need to have legal-only immigration. They need to prune back the state, the socialist state. Can they do it?” 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1    👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273    👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com  (0:00) Europe's Growing Concerns (2:14) Energy Crisis and Economic Impact (3:15) Postwar Order and Military Spending (5:54) Challenges and Future Directions (6:39) Conclusion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The more we see contemporary Europe, the more we have grounds for deep concern. There's mass demonstrations in Britain against illegal immigration and crime. There's a perception that immigrants, many of them in Britain illegally, are not treated severely as they should be according to the law. In Germany, there is massive defections in support for illegal immigration. I think the German Chancellor Frederick Mert's subtext was, we can't afford to subsidize 15% of our population who came here for the most illegally in our entitlements. We have the same type of unrest appearing in the

Netherlands and to a lesser degree in France. Unfortunately, illegal immigration and unsecured borders are not Europe's only problem. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal. We're hearing a lot about Europe in the news primarily because of the Ukraine-Russian war and the trade wars or tariff disagreements with the United States. But The more we see contemporary Europe, the more we have grounds for deep concern. There's mass demonstrations in Britain against illegal immigration and crime that's not treated in the way it is with citizen. There's a perception that immigrants, many of them in Britain illegally, are not treated equally.

And I mean equally in the system that they're not treated severely as they should be according to the law. In Germany, there is massive defections in support for illegal migration. Remember, former Chancellor Merkel said, yes, we can. We can let in people from the Middle East, mostly Muslims. She let in one million into Germany. It's got 15 to 16 percent of the population are aliens. They're not German citizens. They weren't born in Germany.

We have the same type of unrest appearing in the Netherlands, and to a lesser degree in France. Unfortunately, illegal migration and unsecured borders are not Europe's only problem. They made a conscientious decision, that is, most European countries, to lessen their carbon footprint on the idea that they were going to go to zero net emissions, meaning they would disavow all use of fossil fuels. The result in a country like Germany, they shut down nuclear power. plants. They shut down gas and oil-fed plants. And the same is in true of Britain. And we're seeing across the board in Europe energy prices spiking. And average citizens can't turn on the heat in the

winter or air conditioning to the extent they have it in the summer. But more importantly, even, their businesses are not competitive globally now because the price per kilowatt hour is more expensive than even here, the failed state of California, which has the highest electricity cost in the United States, again, because of similar policies of Europe. But that's not the only problem. The post-war order of 80 years is over with. Remember, the United States rebuilt Europe, our help to try to rebuild Europe through the Marshall Plan, the creation of NATO, the Britain-Words Accords that had the World Bank International Monetary Fund. The idea was that in the shambles of World War II, we needed to get the European powerhouse economies back on their feet and with

them the global economy. So the United States really had two or three principal agendas. They were going to allow free entry into the U.S. market from a recovering Europe while allowing them Europe to have high tariffs against American exports, we were going to subsidize the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Not so much during the Cold War, Europe stepped up to the plate, but after the Cold War, in the last 30 or so years, we have been subsidizing 16 to 18 percent of the budget and much more to keep global communications, sea lanes travel safe from terrorists and belligerent. that's over with now. There is now a war not in Chechnya, not in Georgia, but right on their doorstep with Russia and Ukraine. And the Europeans had not all made their promises when Donald

Trump came into office in 2017 to invest 2% of their GDP on military affairs. Trump was severely criticized for badgering them. Now almost 22 or 23 of the 32 nations have met. their major requirements, and now they promised to go up to 5%. But as recently, the German Chancellor, Frederick Mertz, said, we can't afford the welfare state anymore. And I think his subtext was, we can't afford to subsidize 15% of our population who came here for the most part illegally in our entitlements. But in a wider sense, the whole socialist paradigm is not producing goods and service

that allow such general entitlements. The borders are insecure. Illegal immigrants are not assimilated, acculturated, integrated into the German-French, European body politic. And they're going to have a terrible time spending 5% of GDP to defend themselves. This is in addition to having to lower their $200 billion surplus with the United States. In conclusion, we know what Europe has to do. It has to return to common sense energy policies, use their natural gas, use oil to the extent they have it, build nuclear plants, be competitive on the world market in terms of energy costs. They need to secure their borders.

They need to have legal-only immigration. They need to prune back the state, the socialist state. Can they do it? It's going to be very difficult because many in Europe feel, as the American left, that the medicine is worse than the disease. And if that's true, Europe, our partner in the West, is going to be looking at some pretty tough times ahead. Thank you very much, Victor Davis Hanson, for The Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to The Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.