🎙️ Yesterday we opened the Conference Days of the European Forum Alpbach. Around 800 guests, one annual theme: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘀. Not a question. A task.
Today many behave as if all of our democratic achievements are normal. As if peace, freedom and the single market were part of the weather. I call them the 𝘀𝗹𝗲𝗲𝗽𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 — a word I borrow from Christopher Clark, who described the leaders of 1914 as watchful, but blind. They were not uninformed. They simply drew no consequence from what they saw.