News and information from Europe πͺπΊ
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Correct answer for basically every country: far-right extremists and the hardcore neoliberal capitalist right (that will happily cooperate with the former if given the chance)... constantly pushed by bad foreign (to destabilise democracies) and domestic (to enrich themselves at the expense of democracy) actors^(*)^.
^(*)^: bonus points for US tech bros often matching both categories
Neoliberals, nazis, shit weather.
So... Somewhere ~~in Europe~~ on Planet Earth?
Gosh, how'd you know?
Hey that is unfair. There is plenty of places with good weather.
Spain?
Not nearly as sexy.
Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?
Yeah, doesn't that give you the warm and fuzzies? How we're all the same, really? πΌπΊπΈπ·
From Finland. So, the answer is extremely easy to answer: Our eastern neighbour having turned fascist and their Ruler having declared they want to make my country part of said neighbour.
Germany: Domestic rightwingers are trying to dismantle everything we have achieved since after WW2, supported by foreign dictators.
Russia, China, and other autocracies.
neoliberalism?
European countries' biggest problems come from abroad, in particular from the East.
Well nothing's ever gone wrong in Europe blaming internal strife on Those Foreigners From The East
Yeah, it is those damn foreigners that slashed taxes, privatized infrastructure, gutted social systems, "liberated" the markets and caused the birth rates to drop below stability rates by making life unaffordable. Also climate change is those damn foreigners fault. After all the Steam Engine and industrialization are known to be inventions of the devilish Maori tribes in New Zealand, who came to pillage unsuspecting and peaceful Europe on their raiding boats.
I don' t understand why you react so uneasy. Russia and China are the greatest threats to European and Western democracies, there is no doubt about that. Invading other countries (or the threat thereof), disinformation and misinformation campaigns, election interference, Moscow and Beijing's support of European far-right (and far-left) parties, cyber attacks, arson attacks and other sabotage acts have been increasing in recent years. And this list isn't even complete.
The UK and other EU countries are becoming increasingly authoritarian. Crackdowns on peaceful protest, branding protests against genocide and against climate change as "terrorism", Crackdowns on progressive media with illegal searches and seizures of equipment, attempts to influence press directly, cooperation with far right and fascist media to discredit peaceful protests while downplaying racist riots, Attacks on whistleblowers such as the torture of Julian Assange...
All of these are justified with some external threat and alleging that people who care about human rights, climate change or want their governments not to engage in severe crimes are painted as "foreign agents" in order to not address the question, why the UK and other governments are engaged in severe crimes.
At the same time taxes for the rich are reduced, austerity measures are hardened and Fascists are on the rise, with the complicity or inaction of the supposed "centrist" governments. All of this is doing Russia and China a great favor.
So, you agree with the other commenter that china and russia are funding destabilisation in european countries?
The issue of China and Russia seeking to destabilize European countries should not be equated with accusing and crushing every protest movement as being funded by either. Incidentally the movements where that is actually known, Fascists and other far-right are getting a rather light treatment, even though their ties to Russia and China are well known, such as with the AfD in Germany and related movements.
Going back to Palestine, Israel has a rather ambiguous relationship with Russia and happily throws European countries under the bus, if it servers their own interests. For instance Israel supplied Russia with surveillance drones after Russia annexed Crimea and started to have "green men" appear in Donetsk and Lushansk. Israel also wanted Russia to keep a military presence in Syria, and even told the Ukrainian government behind closed doors it should just surrender to Russia.
So governments like in the UK or Germany are helping Russia triplefold. First by supporting Israel against EU interests, then by eroding civil rights with authoritarian crackdowns as well as supporting Israeli war crimes, thereby legitimizing Russias brutal regime and finally by continuously strengthening the Fascists that are back by Russia.
Instead of addressing these issues, people who protest against that are brandished and repressed under the guise of fighting Russian influence, which is a transparent lie, once you look at the whole picture.
I see the issue now
The question was, what is the biggest problem in your country.
The ones you listed are easily in the 2nd or 3rd place, because they are very huge problems as well. But of course the Russia wanting to wage a war against several European countries is the biggest problem.
The reason those other problems were not mentioned is that the question allows the answer to contain only one thing.
People... What a bunch of bastards.
The looming treat of fashism
*Fascism
Fashism is a failed startup backed by Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, and a bunch of venture capitalist nobody would recognize. Imagine how many people watched that happen and said nothing.
Ignoring the other typo but this word gets misspelled a lot.
Fashism is such a shitty name for a company. holy shit.
Netherlands: successive governments have been putting off actually addressing issues causing them to become a pile of confounding crises, such as nitrogen emissions and housing, which complicates migration, etc.
Why solve issues when you can double it and give it to the next cabinet?
Far right idiots
I think that the biggest problem is the lack of long term thinking and planning. The polarization in politics doesn't help - every party is trying to say that it is different from the other one so even in the stuff like defense policy is so fractured across the spectrum.
Fascism, Nazis, Housin, no future retirement for young people, russia and too much bureaucracy! School system and schools that havent been updated since 1960/1970s. And nothing is digital
Microsoft, Google, Facebook and co.
Poland: We have a fucking war in the neighborhood, keeping the support for Ukraine and refugees costs fuckton of money.
Does Poland ban Ukrainians from working? I thought Poland(like the rest of Europe) has a massive demographic crisis, so more workers would be needed.
The problem is that working age males aren't allowed to leave Ukraine (because war they enacted special laws)
90% of Ukrainians with refugee status in Poland are women and children. Out of remaining 10% males most are either elderly or have chronic conditions
In the peak, Poland was spending 3% of entire GDP on refugee support, and another 5% on military support
There's separate group of Ukrainians who emigrated before war, and they stay based on work permits - but they aren't refugees
Unaffordability of housing.
All the idiots.
Denmark... I don't think we have a lot of serious national problems. Our main problem seems to be climate change, a global issue, and our allies in the US having lost their marbles.
Germany: Risk of (nuclear) war, reversion to digital quasi-feudal economic structures, far-right politics, etc.
Germany: The nuclear showdown with China and Russia is an accepted path to continue western domination. As a counter measure, the military bases with nuclear weapons will be hit with nuclear weapons.
Without that, we don't prepare for China taking over technological leadership which makes all German and European products second class. The trade advantages will melt which will destroy the economic surplus that is financing everything.
Switzerland:
Also the new trams have a SOS button exactly where the door-open-button on the old version was.
Imagine living in a city that isn't walkable (this post was made in lucerne) (I'm only jealous we have buses and not trams)
It's really nice here. Most of the tram stops have the markings for where the disabled-friendly section of the tram will stop (and it's usually accurate, also on the newer models it doesn't matter because they all have level access). You have the white stripes for the blind people, as well. Also during work/school hours the interval is 3.5 minutes. You can't miss a tram because the next one is already around the corner.
Basel here.
Basel here
So happy I didn't just write "Muesch halt ned in ZΓΌri lΓ€be" ;P
Yeah, it's about the same here in Luzern, except it's Buses not Trams.
I mean, tbh, with the amount of "Oberleitige" we have, we practically have a tram system already. I wish we would just make it officially. We already had trams, just bring them back please (the ones that are powered through the rails, not Oberleitige). I absolutely hate the cables hanging over the city and think they destroy its picture.
(Though a big advantage: I didn't have to dodge Trams on my driving exam lol. To this day I still get nervous when driving in cities with trams.)