Europe, Home Alone: We Better Get Used to It – Swiftly

Harris or Trump? Whether one or the other, both will turn from Europe to deal with problems back home. But this could be a chance, not an obstacle for the continent.

The annual European Forum Alpbach is a typical European event. Since 80 years, at the end of August, some active and even more former European politicians and experts come to Alpbach, a beautiful village in the mountains of Tyrol, joined by young students invited from all over the world, to discuss “Europe in the World.” While the view is splendid, the food opulent, and the drinks strong, the mood is almost always grim. “The good old times are gone forEurope,” is a sentence you hear every year in Alpbach. “We are falling behind,” is a standard complaint. “There is a lack of leadership in theEU,” is a theme played out in different intonations year by year. Some of the young people who come to Alpbach fromSerbia, Nigeria, India, or Argentina must wonder why they are invited as an audience for all this European self-flagellation.