Deglobalization goes on. The EU is breaking down

Liberal democracy as it is practiced by the US and many European governments is politically stagnant and economically ineffective, so the people of these countries vote for the rights as an alternative. This does not mean that the rights will govern effectively, but the people want to change something. Since there are only “good” rights (compared to the lefts) other than the “bad” (now) lefts, the citizens vote for the rights.
The lefts in the US and EU are now fighting to regain/keep power, to continue to care about the people's well-being (really about themselves) and lead their peoples into a bright future (really to nowhere).

Almost all states have now turned into huge, bureaucratic, unwieldy machines designed for the legal extraction of money by elites (both right and left) from national budgets. I absolutely agree with the opinion of British economist Timothy Ash: “… the common message across European politics is ... actually a defeat for incumbents as populations rail against ineffective government and a failure to address core issues like the cost of living crisis. We have seen defeat for incumbents pretty much across the board in elections over the last year - in the UK, US, New Zealand, Turkey (local elections), Poland, South Africa, even Modi in India, likely soon in Canada, Germany and perhaps in Serbia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia.”
It looks like an epidemic of partial enlightenment of the nations.

The EU is in the midst of a growing political and economic crisis which is being exacerbated by the governments' toothless policies towards illegal immigration. I think that a large number of right-wingers will enter the European Parliament as a result of the election in 2029 and they will quite democratically dissolve the EU (if the EU does not collapse earlier). And that's not bad: the cumbersome and ineffective union will disintegrate into separate countries which will then act a little more effectively. The euro will disappear into oblivion - I'm sure that European governments are already ready to introduce forgotten francs, marks, guilders and liras into circulation in their countries.

Interestingly, Bulgaria does not seem to see the EU in decline and is planning to switch to the euro in 2025.

Schengen area and internal border controls.

The border-free Schengen Area guarantees free movement to EU citizens, along with non-EU nationals living in the EU or visiting the EU as tourists or for business purposes.

Free movement of people enables every EU citizen to travel, work and live in an EU country without special formalities. Schengen underpins this freedom by enabling citizens to move around the Schengen Area without being subject to border checks. 
Today, the Schengen Area encompasses most EU countries, except for Cyprus and Ireland. Bulgaria and Romania became the newest members of the Schengen Area after the checks on persons at the internal land borders were lifted as of 1 January 2025. Additionally, the non-EU States Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein also have joined the Schengen Area.

If there is a serious threat to public policy or internal security, a Schengen country may temporarily reintroduce border control at its internal borders. However, border controls should be applied as a last resort in exceptional situations, and must be time-limited.

Many European countries have a lot of their own internal problems, illegal immigration and terrorism have become a nuisance to everyone, and under this pretext they have begun to restore controls on their borders, i.e. to physically separate themselves from their neighbors.
The EU and the Schengen zone are bursting at the seams.

“Last resort” and “exceptional situation.”

Many European countries have recently been actively applying and constantly extending border controls. And every time they explain their actions to the European Union as “last resort” because they have found themselves in an “exceptional situation.”

- Germany.
In September 2024, Germany expanded border controls in the east and south to include the west and north for six months, citing irregular migration, cross-border crime, and terrorist threats. Border checks were already in place with France due to the Paris Olympic Games and at borders with Poland, Czech Republic, and Switzerland since mid-October last year. Controls at the German-Austrian land border have been ongoing since 2015.
In the end of December 2024, Germany announced plans to extend border controls beyond March 2025 as part of efforts to combat illegal migration.
“Our comprehensive measures to limit irregular migration and combat smuggling crime are working… We need these controls until the protection of the EU’s external borders is significantly increased,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser explained.

Notably, the German parliament has passed the immigration resolution backed by both lefts and far rights in the end of January 2025. The resolution has no power of law, but it labeled the existing European regulations on migrants and asylum seekers as "clearly dysfunctional," calls for the permanent border controls and the “rejection of all attempts to enter the country illegally without exception.”

- France.
France’s current border controls with its immediate neighbors have been prolonged last time since November 1, 2024 until April 20, 2025. The extension came after growing concerns over public safety amid threats of terrorist activity and criminal organizations connected to illegal migration.
In the beginning of February 2025, the France's Interior Ministry announced that deportations of migrants living irregularly in the country increased by nearly 27 percent in 2024, with approximately 22,000 individuals deported.
The data comes as the government seeks to tighten immigration policies amid rising support for the far-right.

- Netherlands.
On December 9, 2024, the Netherlands’ government has begun its implementation of additional border controls. The controls are set to last six months, and will take place in border regions and "at airports in relation to specific flights where there is a risk of irregular migration or cross-border crime." The measures were proposed by the right-wing coalition led by Geert Wilders' anti-Muslim nationalist PVV party. However, the Netherlands assigned at that time only 50 officers to carry out the task for about 840 border crossings.

- Austria.
Austria has extended the border controls with Hungary and Slovenia last time in November 2024 and they will remain effective until May 2025. Austria Minister of Interior Gerhard Karner said that this measure is a decisive factor in the fight against irregular migration to Austria and the EU.

- Italy.
In December, 2024, Italy extended its border controls with Slovenia until June 2025. The measure aims to strengthen the country’s security amid Italy’s concerns related to terrorism and irregular migration. Italy has already managed to make an agreements with Libya (2017) and Albania (2023), and organized the reception centers for migrants in these countries.

- Slovenia.
Slovenia initially introduced controls at its borders with Croatia and Hungary on October 21, 2023. The measure has been continuously extended since then. The last time it happened in December 2024 and will be in effect until June 2025. The government says the measures were extended due to increased terrorism threats to ensure national and public security.

- Denmark and Sweden.
Both countries extended their controls at land, air and sea borders for another six months until May 2025. It is done because of the threats to public order and for internal security after 2 terrorist attacks at Israeli embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen in October, 2024.

- Poland.
Poland borders Belarus which, according to Polish Prime Minister D. Tusk, helps illegal immigrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa reach the EU border, and the gate of which in this case is Poland.
In response to that crisis, Mr. Tusk’s government has launched in December 2024 a tough new border and migration policy of its own, including plans to partially suspend the acceptance of asylum claims and to send those who submitted them back over the border to Belarus. The decision emerged after Germany extended controls on its borders with all neighboring countries in September 2024.

EU warned Poland over its plans to suspend asylum claims in October 2024. A spokesperson for the European Commission reminded that member countries “have international and EU obligations, including the obligation to provide access to the asylum procedure… We need to work towards a European solution — one that holds strong against the hybrid attacks from Putin and Lukashenko, without compromising on our values.”

In response Polish Prime Minister has warned that he would not respect or implement any EU asylum right if it threatened his country’s security.

The long-awaited reaction of the EU.

The European Commission has finally turned its attention to the problem of illegal immigration.
Leaky external EU borders are destroying the EU's Schengen passport-free travel area, fueling the rise of far-right parties and affecting election results across entire Europe, making migration a key political problem.

Just a few days after D. Tusk's tough statement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the EU plan to combat illegal migration, for the first time supporting the position of Poland in its temporarily suspending to accept asylum applications, and Italy's innovation in organizing migrant reception centers in countries outside the EU.

US President Trump is another threat to the current existence of the EU.

The new old US President Mr. Trump immediately took the bull by the horns and began to test the strength of his European allies.
If to omit the PR-project of buying Greenland from Denmark, Mr. Trump wants NATO allies to significantly increase their defense spending (which they see as an unexpected and unnecessary expense), impose tariffs on EU exports to the US (which would hit exporting countries hard, especially Germany), and significantly increase energy supplies from the US to EU (which would reduce the competitiveness of European enterprises seeking to run on green energy). Now the EU countries must start doing something – rebuilding their armies, introducing counter-tariffs on American goods, reducing the cost of their clean energy – to prove the viability and geopolitical significance of their bloc in real capitalistic competition. But no one wants to leave the comfort zone. And in Europe, in my opinion, there is no force capable of leading the EU.

Mr. Trump (like the illegal immigration) is an obvious threat to the current existence of the EU. He poses the same threat to his own country though, but the EU is distinctly divided ethnically, and European countries stick together much less than the US states. It seems that the EU with its liberal democratic principles and weakened economy is not ready to face such severe tests and, if so, it will relatively soon (before 2030) fall apart. Too many problems have been created by the elites of various European countries with the connivance of their peoples.

The EU is an artificial union of very different countries.

I have been watching the EU for a long time. For me, it has always been an artificial amalgamation of very different economically and mentally countries, but it was nice to drive through the borders between its states at 60 miles per hour.

I remember talking to two middle-aged German ladies in Vienna in 2003. They were unhappy: the euro had just been introduced and they paid in euros the same amount they had previously paid in German marks, i.e. the prices for all goods and services in Germany had almost doubled for them. I heard the same from Lithuanians and Estonians: their lives had become significantly more expensive after their countries joined the EU. I got the impression that the EU membership was more needed by the elites of European countries than by their people.

The creation of the European Union was a bold experiment and everything was fine in the beginning. However, any union presupposes closeness of mentalities and approximate economic equality of the participants. It is impossible to harness such different countries as Germany and Greece or France and Hungary to the same cart, not to mention Turkey or Ukraine. The European “cart” called the EU does not move, because different countries have different interests and pull it in different directions. I called it earlier “a union of Crayfish, Swan and Pike.”

The EU is now stagnating and disintegrating. Collapse is just around the corner.