This phenomenon has been described by political scientists long ago. A recognition of this fact by someone who was close to former president Joe Biden is quite impressive.
According to Jean-Pierre, Biden repeatedly spoke about growing the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, but this slogan ultimately failed to resonate. In the end, looking back, she is forced to admit that they misread the public mood.
This inability to soberly assess the balance of power and draw the appropriate conclusions is becoming a fairly widespread disease afflicting virtually all ruling elites without exception. Of course, sober voices are sometimes heard, but as a rule, they did not attract much attention and drown in a sea of disseminated narratives.
Ruling Elites Misstep Too Frequently
On April 30, 1998, George Kennan, the architect of the containment doctrine toward the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Cold War, warned that the US Senate ratifying NATO enlargement and the inclusion of three former Eastern Bloc countries, i.e. Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, would become “the most catastrophic mistake in American policy in the entire post-Cold War era”. According to him, the West missed the opportunity for a lasting peace because of its reckless aggression.
The French Le Monde Diplomatique magazine in its October 2026 issue emphasized that European governments, without having received a popular mandate, reoriented the policy of the European Union toward a single short-term goal of defeating Moscow in Ukraine, while acting against their own national interests. “From Warsaw to Rome, from Tallinn to Athens, the lives of hundreds of millions of people beat to the rhythm of often panicked reports about the Russian threat”. The key fact is that none of these transformations affecting the security of the continent was put to a general vote or even open to public discussion. A group of self-proclaimed experts (retired generals, former diplomats), all of whom sought to present the war as necessary “while they work to marginalize or expel those who do not agree with the new European neoconservative faith”, have left these issues to themselves, beyond democratic participation of the population.
On a more fundamental level, the main challenges of the 21st century require what power politics impedes, namely cooperation.
The flawed nature of the current Russophobic policy of Western European elites is becoming increasingly obvious; even Western media are gradually beginning to realize this. Noteworthy in this connection is the statement by Bloomberg on October 4 that a decade of Macron’s rule has turned France into the weakest link in Europe, which is especially evident against the backdrop of growing popular discontent, slowing economic development, a sharp increase in debt, and a mass exodus of investors from French assets.
The French authorities have already been unable for several weeks to cope with student protests, with the police already having detained more than 5,000 people.
Another example of the rejection of government policy was the widespread outrage among Spaniards over the rapid rise in rent and the shortage of housing, which led Prime Minister Sánchez to decide on October 5 to dissolve the parliament and hold early elections.
Discontent is growing among ordinary German citizens with the policy pursued by current Chancellor Merz. When this German leader headed to Kiev to save his plummeting ratings and announce new packages of aid to Ukraine, on that day, October 4, large demonstrations took place in Berlin demanding that the authorities start to deal with German problems, of which there are more and more.
Approximately the same processes are observed in the United Kingdom, where the ruling class is increasingly forced to resort to changing prime ministers in an attempt to somehow soften public discontent. Even British newspapers call the current head of the cabinet temporary, since the situation in the country is deteriorating. And yet on the agenda for the near future is the possibility of referendums in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland with the aim of resolving the question of withdrawal from the United Kingdom.
Examples of such protesting sentiments are multiplying day by day, and it is clear that a change of the current governments is only a matter of time.
Muhammad Amer, Syrian publicist, expert on current issues of global and regional politics
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