Europe has had much to say, in the weeks since war has erupted, about its sympathy for Ukraine as a fellow European state. Much, too, has been made of European unity. Yet while President Putin might have revived a sense of solidarity on the continent, the idea that the Russian war will solve Europe’s problems already looks like a forlorn hope.

Europe’s troubles are many and varied. Among them is a waning sense of identity that is compounded by the relentless march of centrists á la France’s Emmanuel Macron. They are unsettling not so much because of their political ideology, but because they lack any noticeable ideology at all.

In the French presidential election we heard much about the views of Marine Le Pen, Éric Zemmour, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, yet little about Mr. Macron’s. Apart from vague references to restoring prosperity to French workers and advancing Europe’s “strategic autonomy,” the French incumbent’s selling point was, essentially, his lack of any platform. Little wonder that about one-fourth of French stayed home.


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