Valencia (VLC)

Saving European Industry: Just Put a Tank Tread on I

For years, Europe lived under the illusion that the future was being built in sustainable cafes, driven by ESG strategies, imported solar panels, and 600-page compliance reports. We regulated everything that could possibly be regulated until our heavy industry became a museum piece and our automotive plants started gasping for air.

But don’t worry, Brussels has finally found the magic bullet for reindustrialisation: Militarisation.

Suddenly, the circular economy has been replaced by trench economics. If a tractor factory is no longer viable due to energy costs, the fix is simple: conversion. Stop making tractors, start making tanks. Steel mills that were deemed too “dirty” for last year’s green standards are now suddenly upgraded to essential strategic assets for continental security.

It is an absolutely brilliant economic logic. How do you save a collapsing automotive industry? Give it armour plating and a cannon barrel. How do you solve the lack of chips and tech innovation in CEE? Tell them that if they don’t produce microcontrollers for drones, their structural funding gets cut.

The most beautiful part of this new European “Military Keynesianism”? The end consumer is guaranteed and never goes bankrupt: the state. You no longer have to stress over marketing, consumer preferences, or competitiveness on the global free market. You just need to produce something that either explodes or stops someone else from exploding.

For centuries we have been killing each other in Europe, and it is wonderful to see that we plan to keep killing each other — only this time, rebranded as an economic growth strategy and a GDP stimulus.

European industry isn’t dying; it’s just changing uniforms. War has once again become the most efficient R&D department. The pinnacle of sustainability: tanks powered by biofuel and carbon-neutral ammunition.

If we are heading straight for the wall anyway, we might as well do it in a domestically produced armoured vehicle. As they say in Brussels: Si vis pacem, para… subsidia.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/saving-european-industry-just-put-tank-tread-laszlo-daniel-nzkkf