Not all threats come from outside Europe’s borders.

One of the most insidious is the fragmentation of the political landscape. Traditional parties are losing ground. Political reference points are shifting — often to the benefit of extreme positions. Disruptive forces are rushing in to fill the vacuum.

Today’s politics is, above all, anti. Anti-European. Anti-immigration. Anti-elite. Anti-woke. Anti-system.

Democratic debate is increasingly drowned out by so-called “culture wars”.

There are always easy targets. In the UK, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has highlighted the weaponisation of the European Convention on Human Rights, accusing it of weakening national identity and border security.

In the US, Vice-President JD Vance, doubling down on his Munich speech, has framed limits on free speech as a direct threat to Western civilisation.

The risk is using the tools of democracy itself — its laws, institutions, and freedoms — to restrict rights, suppress dissent, and create the illusion that security must come first.