"The state does not create wealth, it only consumes it": Europe's socialist model hits a wall

Daniel Lacalle writes that Europe's decades-long model of high welfare, high subsidies, and high taxation has exhausted economic competitiveness, triggering large-scale social unrest. In 2025, French public spending accounted for 57.2% of GDP, government spending across the EU as a whole reached 49.5% of GDP, and the eurozone's projected growth rate for 2026 is only 1.1%, far below the United States' 2.3%. Multiple European countries face high public debt and massive unfunded pension liabilities, and the IMF projects French economic growth of only 0.4% in 2026.