JOHN MAC GHLIONN: Traditional Europe is disappearing


Europe is vanishing. Not in the sense of a single catastrophic event, but in a quieter, more insidious manner.

The continent is witnessing the gradual erasure of its cultural identity, its historical soul, and the values that have defined it for centuries. To walk the streets of Dublin, Paris, or Rome today is to witness entire societies falling apart. This isn’t the Europe of old, the cradle of Western civilization. It’s something radically different.

The speed of this transformation is breathtaking—and horrifying. In just a few decades, demographic shifts, cultural dilution, and the erosion of traditional values have accelerated to the point where Europe’s past seems like a relic, something to be mocked or discarded rather than preserved.

Immigration, once celebrated as the solution to Europe’s aging populations, has instead proven to be the exact opposite. The influx of millions from the Middle East, Africa, and beyond has not been accompanied by assimilation but by the emergence of parallel societies. No-go zones—areas where police dare not tread and where national laws are superseded by other codes—are no longer whispered rumors; they are documented realities. Major cities like Malmö and Munich have become unrecognizable.

The numbers don’t lie, and neither does the rising discontent in the streets. If you want proof, just ask the average German citizen.

A nation once synonymous with order and stability, Germany now finds itself in disarray.

Three out of four Germans believe their federal government is failing to combat illegal immigration. That’s not a statistic; it’s a damning verdict. Today, 75% of citizens are fed up with the left-wing coalition’s open-border experiment. Only 14% express any satisfaction with the government’s approach, while a negligible 2% dare to call the issue unimportant. The rest, it seems, are watching their nation transform into something unrecognizable, and they don’t like what they see.

And why would they?

The numbers reflect more than dissatisfaction; they reveal an existential crisis.

An Issue of Quantity and Quality

Even with border controls reinstated, Germany recorded 71,000 unauthorized entries in the first ten months of this year. Though down from last year’s 127,500, the drop offers little reassurance. The damage has already been done. Ethnic Germans are already a minority in some towns, and crimes committed by migrants dominate headlines. A recent case saw a 52-year-old Iraqi migrant confess to murdering his wife—a mother of nine—by stabbing her in her sleep. Just another day in Europe’s most powerful nation.

France, Germany’s neighbor, is also nosediving into the abyss. There’s a fine line between helping others and harming oneself, and France crossed it long ago. The country’s emergency accommodation system is stretched to its limit, running at 98% capacity and draining over half a billion euros annually to house migrants in hotels. Nearly half of France’s population—48%—now demands zero immigration, whether legal or illegal. This isn’t a fringe movement; it’s a seismic shift in public opinion, driven by fears of cultural erosion and demographic upheaval. This isn’t just a German or French problem; it’s a European problem. Across the continent, disillusionment with mass immigration festers. In May, an EU-wide poll revealed that over seven in ten Europeans believe their countries accept far too many migrants. Even more telling, only 39% think Europe “needs immigration today.” The numbers are impossible to ignore, but the political elites seem determined to try.

What’s in a Name?

In Britain, “Muhammad” has become the most popular name for newborn boys—a pattern echoed in Brussels, the epicenter of Europe’s immigration experiment, and Berlin. Even in Ireland, the story repeats. In Galway, a small city just a few miles from where I grew up, the Muslim name also reigns supreme. One doesn’t need to harbor anti-Islamic sentiments to recognize the discomforting pace of these demographic shifts. They raise serious questions about assimilation, identity, and whether Europe can endure such sweeping transformations without fracturing at its core. As churches shutter across the continent, mosques are springing up at an unnerving pace.

The speed of Europe’s decline is, for lack of a better word, shocking. At the turn of the century, Europe was still synonymous with strong borders, rich traditions, and a sense of shared identity. Two and a half decades later, this is no longer the case.

What’s most tragic is the apathy, or worse, the outright hostility to those who dare to raise the alarm. Those who speak out are branded reactionaries, xenophobes, or worse. Their warnings are drowned out by the ceaseless chant of “progress.” But progress toward what? A Europe where identity, like gender, is deemed fluid, history is rewritten to suit the narrative, and the future continues to be shaped by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels, that’s what.

This is not progress. It’s a betrayal of the generations who built Europe, who fought and died for its ideals, and who believed they were passing on something worth preserving.

This Story originally came from humanevents.com