“We have entered a time of great-power politics,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said today in Davos. “This new world of great powers is being built on power, on strength, and—when it comes to it—on force. It’s not a cozy place.” He urged Europe to respond accordingly and added:

Our power today rests on three pillars: our security, our competitiveness and our unity.

However, Europe remains plagued by divisions that seem to be nearing a breaking point.

• When U.S. President Donald Trump went so far as to threaten military action for annexing Greenland from Denmark, only a few European nations actively opposed him. On January 16, seven nations sent troops to Greenland, and Trump threatened to impose tariffs on them.
• Trump has backed down for now. This can be seen as a huge victory for Europe. However, if the trade war had escalated, Europe’s divisions would have rendered most of its threats ineffective.

On the same day that Trump announced his tariffs, the EU signed the largest trade agreement in history with the mercosur bloc. However, despite the prospect of a trade war with the U.S., a majority of EU parliamentarians voted for a controversial resolution that could delay the agreement by sending it to the European Court of Justice for review. As Spiegel wrote:

The powerful signal that [European Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen wanted to send from Europe to the world, with which she wanted to defy the attacks from Washington, is now at best a flicker.

Merz acknowledged this as a setback, saying: “I deeply regret that the European Parliament has put another obstacle in our way yesterday. But rest assured: We will not be stopped.”

The mercosur deal can still go into effect provisionally—perhaps even faster than if the European Parliament had approved the deal yesterday. However, this division is haunting Europe.

Prophecy says: While some believe European unification will be weak at best, the Bible reveals that it will forge a smaller, much stronger union. The mercosur deal itself will likely help bring this about. In 2019, Mr. Flurry wrote:

If this massive trade deal is finalized this year, then I believe we will see the current 28-nation European Union pared down to the prophesied 10-nation superpower this year as well. Before Europe can be closely tied to Latin America, something will have to change. The current politically and religiously disunified EU will have to become a politically, militarily and religiously unified Holy Roman Empire.

This union is prophesied in Daniel 2 and Revelation 17. Though certain divisions will persist, it will have the power of a beast to cause unprecedented damage, destruction and death. Read more in Mr. Flurry’s article “America Is Being Besieged Economically.”