Fiscally conservative countries (Germany, the Netherlands and others in the Frugal Four) in the EU have for a long time preached countries must "balance their budgets". Now Germany balanced too hard and didn't invest enough, their car companies are experiencing a decline while the Chinese companies are growing, and the rest of their industry got addicted to cheap gas which isn't available anymore. The UK left the EU. And the EU is incapable of creating large tech companies.

Germany is in a slow death spiral. What you are seeing right now is basically the scene from Animal Farm where Boxer, the working horse, has been injured [1]. The burden on the productively working citizens is growing, because money is required to finance the migration policy, oversized healthcare system, the huge pension payments for the ageing population (there is no pension fund) and government spending. Also, tax revenue is shrinking(!). The current government is asleep at the steering wheel, so industry may continue to leave the country, which will again reduce tax revenue, so the government will have to further increase the burden on the productive sector, which will again result in weakening the economy.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xzklsnBTzc

One data point is the debt crisis France found itself in.

https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/10/11/frances-emergen...

- Declining manufacturing

- declining GDP

- higher (st?) energy prices across the board

- dependency on the US for energy and defense

- unelected EU government