OCTOBER 20 — Europe is living through a period of mounting social anxiety. Recent protests in France, Portugal and Italy have centred on housing, wages, living costs and strained public services. They were not coordinated and should not be read as a single movement, nor should peaceful mobilisation be confused with the violence of smaller groups.
Yet together they raise a question that reaches beyond Europe: what happens when an economy looks sound on paper while its citizens feel increasingly insecure? Asean has a direct stake in Europe’s stability. Asean–EU trade in goods reached €274.9 billion in 2025. But the deeper lesson concerns the relationship between economic performance and political consent. Governments cannot take public confidence for granted when improvements in national indicators fail to translate into greater security at home.
