When German social democracy begs for fewer forms and an Italian prefect shuts down speed cameras for lack of a stamp, it is clear: the European Leviathan is losing its teeth.
The theoretical state is not just a Polish domain.
Looking at the events of the last 48 hours in the heart of Europe, an image emerges of a system choking on its own procedures.
On one hand, we have Germany, where the energy transition is mired in paperwork.
On the other, Italy, where road safety capitulates to a lack of certificates.
In the background, dramas unfold for which bureaucracy has no answer: brutal teenage violence and murders in „safe” regions.
The thesis is brutal: European procedures, created to protect and organize, are beginning to paralyze the basic functions of the state – from investment to law enforcement.
German Engine Idling. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the industrial heart of Germany, the situation is becoming critical.
The SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) openly admits that the Federal Coal Fund is not working as it should.
Millions of euros intended to save regions after the phase-out of coal are sitting in accounts.
Not because there is a lack of ideas.
Because the bureaucracy is too complicated.
Politicians from this party are warning their coalition partners – the Greens and the FDP – that without simplifying procedures, the money will be wasted.
The German transformation, known as Energiewende, is a civilizational project. Following the decision to phase out nuclear power plants after 2011, and subsequently setting a deadline for lignite coal by 2038, the state promised mining regions a soft landing. The problem is that political promises have collided with administrative reality. Matthias Miersch of the SPD put it with a surgical precision that a seasoned technocrat would envy.
„Angesichts der Herausforderungen des Strukturwandels können wir es uns nicht leisten, dass Kohlefördermillionen in bürokratischen Mühlen stecken bleiben.” (In the face of the challenges of structural change, we cannot afford to let coal subsidy millions get stuck in bureaucratic mills.) — Matthias Miersch This is not ordinary criticism.
It is an alarm signal that the redistribution mechanism, crucial for the Green Deal, is jamming at the level of the application form.
Meanwhile, in Saxony-Anhalt, in the municipality of Cheine, the state must deal with a different kind of waste.
Liquid mercury was found by the federal highway 248 on Sunday, March 1.
Emergency services secured the area, samples went to the lab, but by Thursday, March 5, there were still no toxicity analysis results.
The district office in Salzwedel offers reassurances, but the slowness of the diagnostic process in the face of a potential environmental threat is cause for concern.
Is this another victim of procedures?
Italian Catch-22. If the problem in Germany is spending money, in Italy the state is losing its ability to punish lawbreakers.
In Naples, Prefect Claudio Palomba made an unprecedented decision on Wednesday.
He suspended the operation of all speed cameras in the province.
The reason?
Lack of certification.
„Autovelox” devices, which physically stand by the roads and record speed, have become useless gadgets in the eyes of the law.
It is a classic example of the triumph of form over substance.
The police and municipal guards have the tools, but they cannot use them because the documentation has expired or is incomplete.
The prefecture chose system paralysis over the risk of an avalanche of lawsuits.
As a result, road safety now depends on patrols with handheld radars, which sets the surveillance system back decades.
Meanwhile, in Pordenone, a region considered an oasis of peace, the security system failed in an ultimate way.
Mario Ruoso, the founder of TelePordenone, was murdered in his own home.
He died from blows with a metal rod or crowbar.
Investigators are analyzing CCTV and phone calls, but the fact remains: a well-known entrepreneur dies in broad daylight.
„Nessuna ipotesi esclusa” (We are considering every possibility; at this stage, no hypothesis is excluded.) — Śledczy cytowany przez Il Sole 24 ORE The contrast between these two Italian events is striking.
The state is extremely meticulous when it comes to speed camera certificates, but helpless against brutal violence entering citizens' homes.
Hammer, Mercury, and Paper. A critic might argue that linking bureaucracy with violence is a stretch.
After all, certification procedures protect drivers from the arbitrariness of authority, and complicated fund applications prevent corruption.
This is true.
However, when the procedure becomes more important than the goal, state atrophy occurs.
Let's look at Bavaria.
In Friedberg, a 15-year-old attacked two younger students (aged 11 and 12) with a hammer for racist reasons.
The Munich prosecutor's office charged him with attempted murder.
The perpetrator was known for far-right views.
Where were the prevention programs that millions are spent on?
Did they also get stuck in the bureaucratic mills the SPD speaks of?
German juvenile law will act now, after the fact, offering a reformatory.
But the system failed earlier – at the stage of education and integration.
The outlook is troubling.
If European governments do not regain agency – the ability to spend funds quickly, effectively enforce traffic laws, and truly ensure security – trust in institutions will collapse.
In the Rhineland, voters will turn away from democrats.
In Naples, drivers will see the law as a fiction.
And in Munich or Pordenone, fear will replace the sense of stability.
A state that can find mercury by the road but needs a week to test it ceases to be a guarantor of safety.
It becomes an administrator of decline.
Perspektywy mediów: The Left (represented by the SPD) sees the solution in streamlining the distribution of public funds and strengthening prevention programs, fearing that bureaucracy will thwart the social goals of the transformation. The Right may interpret these events as evidence of the inefficiency of the welfare state and an argument for deregulation and harsher penalties for juvenile offenders.