EDITORIAL: The sight of fighter jets escorting passenger aircraft, airports shutting runways and travellers being evacuated after bomb alerts is hardly reassuring for a continent already grappling with multiple crises. On November 3, at least seven commercial flights operated by Ryanair, Wizz Air, LOT and SAS were targeted by bomb threats across Spain, Italy, Poland, and Bulgaria. A Dublin-Rome flight was escorted by Italian Eurofighters, while a LOT flight from London was diverted to Warsaw-Modlin, temporarily disrupting airport operations. All the affected aircraft landed safely, and no explosives were found.
The aviation scares came amid another disturbing development: cyberattacks on supermarket refrigeration systems across at least nine European countries, including Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Ireland, and the Netherlands, with hackers manipulating freezer and refrigerator temperatures, forcing retailers to discard spoilt food. The European Commission has described the incidents as deliberate attempts to disrupt the bloc’s food supply chain. Together, the attacks on air travel and food retail expose the growing vulnerability of Europe’s critical infrastructure to relatively low-cost, potentially deniable disruption. While no perpetrators have been identified, some security experts have raised the possibility of state-backed actors, including Russia, being involved. Such concerns cannot simply be dismissed, given the growing prevalence of hybrid warfare. But the larger question is why Europe finds itself so exposed and whether its political leadership has the strategic vision to navigate an increasingly uncertain world.
The continent’s vulnerabilities are not confined to security. Across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal, young people have been taking to the streets in growing numbers, protesting against the cost of living, unaffordable housing, underfunded education and deteriorating public services. These are expressions of a wider generational disillusionment with political establishments perceived as increasingly disconnected from ordinary citizens. Europe is experiencing a crisis of confidence, and the vacuum is being exploited by the far right, whose appeal continues to expand.
The predicament has also been compounded by a foreign policy that has left Europe strategically exposed. During the Biden administration, European governments largely fell into step with Washington’s uncompromising approach towards Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There were legitimate grounds for supporting Ukraine and opposing Russian aggression. But there was remarkably little appetite for considering whether a more pragmatic, conciliatory diplomatic approach, alongside pressure on Moscow, might have created an earlier avenue towards ending the conflict. Russia remains a major military and nuclear power, and a permanent feature of Europe’s geopolitical neighbourhood. Treating it as a pariah with whom meaningful engagement is impossible only diminishes Europe’s own diplomatic options. Washington’s subsequent turn towards Trump’s America First agenda has exposed the risks of European dependence on American leadership. President Trump’s trade confrontation, aggressive rhetoric towards traditional allies and political support for far right movements have further unsettled the transatlantic relationship. Europe has found itself caught between an increasingly unpredictable ally and an adversary with whom it has made meaningful engagement exceptionally difficult.
Europe needs a fundamental rethink when it comes to its dealings with Russia. This does not mean excusing Russian aggression or abandoning Ukraine, but European leaders must recognise geopolitical realities, rebuild diplomatic room for manoeuvre and develop a foreign policy grounded in European interests. Equally urgent is a domestic political reset. The far right cannot be countered through cosmetic adjustments to immigration rhetoric or the familiar economic prescriptions of parties that have presided over growing insecurity. The continent needs a new political compact that addresses material grievances, restores faith in democratic institutions and gives younger generations a stake in their future. Unless Europe’s traditional parties recognise the scale of the multifaceted crises they face and embark on a radical course correction, the continent will continue to wallow in insecurity, political fragmentation and strategic irrelevance.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026