The great European dream of unity is suffering tremendous setbacks. Germany is struggling to emerge from political stalemate. France faces political and social disruption resulting from a wave of Muslim riots. The Franco-German machine that was for so long the vanguard of European unity is in crisis—and Europe is in deep trouble.

The Continent is set for a winter of grave dissent. At heart is simply a crisis of leadership.

Take Germany for example. Just two weeks ago, the two most brutally tough politicians at the forefront of German politics removed themselves from positions of real power in the midst of faltering attempts to form a grand alliance of all parties. Hans Müntefering, party leader of the Social Democrats, resigned after initial rounds of talks between party leaders. His departure was immediately followed by that of Edmund Stoiber, the Christian Socialist leader, prime minister for Bavaria and second stringer to Angela Merkel in her bid for the chancellorship in Germany.

This all threw negotiations for a grand alliance into a real spin. Party leaders found themselves reaching down into their ranks to thrust virtual unknowns onto the public political scene in a time of extreme political crisis. Holes were plugged with candidates exhibiting a deficit of experience and any real proven ability to handle Germany’s current delicate political balancing act—certainly when compared to the tough political characters of Müntefering and Stoiber. Clearly, any arrangement for a German government involving an alliance of major parties is destined for an extremely short life.

Back in 1949, when Chancellor Adenauer approached that other “pit bull” of Bavarian politics, Franz Josef Strauss, for his views on forming a grand alliance, Strauss refused. His prime reason was that the parties had no common agreement on economic policy. Now we see his political protégé, Edmund Stoiber (of whom it is said he got on better with opposing Social Democrat party leader Müntefering than with his Christian Democratic Union partner Merkel), refusing to take part in coalition negotiations. With this refusal he threw away the ministry for the economy, the position he had been granted during initial coalition talks. One has to speculate that the example of his Bavarian mentor, Strauss, had significant influence on his decision to withdraw from attempts by Merkel to form a grand alliance. As in 1949, the political parties in Germany exhibit no common policy on how to tackle their basket of economic woes. At present Germany’s economics portfolio would be better branded “political suicide.”

Considering France, President Jacques Chirac is ailing physically and politically. His voice has been conspicuously absent in the wake of the riots initiated by Islamic youth in Paris. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin dilly-dallies on addressing the problem. Meanwhile, Parisian suburbs burn, and the violence has already spread to the Muslim areas in neighboring cities.

As France dithers, extremist mullahs rub their hands in glee and contemplate when to activate the thousands of sleeping cells of terrorism embedded in Europe, particularly in Germany, a prime center for terrorism’s schools. Already a few copycat burnings have followed in Germany and Belgium.

The coincidence of mounting woes in France and Germany spells crisis for the European Union. With Paris and Berlin distracted by domestic troubles, Brussels, capital of the EU, is forced into the background. Over recent months, the Franco-German leadership of the Union has shown cracks in its alliance of the past 50 years. It is now greatly weakened, distracted by the need for internal unity in order to attend to homegrown disasters. Any genuinely effective, ongoing leadership of the EU—as it contemplates how to handle its next rash of aspiring new member nations and how to handle mounting public resistance to is massive regulatory powers—is hugely lacking.

On the surface, it appears the whole EU project is on the verge of falling apart. But this will simply not happen. It will be Germany—not France—who ultimately sees to it that the project is saved.

The German National Socialist leaders who went underground to try one more time for a pan-European Union—as once prevailed under the Habsburgs, as later attempted by Kaiser Wilhelm, and in most recent history by Adolf Hitler with his Nazi henchmen—have passed the baton to another generation. These are the suited men of Brussels and Berlin, backed by the same old corporatist families of German industry that bankrolled the previous attempt for German world rule. The careful, steady, deliberate takeover of Europe and beyond with a succession of treaties, alliances, protocols and regulations designed to subsume the national sovereignty of European nations within a great federal European Union under Teutonic leadership—this is an ideal that will not be easily sacrificed by its visionaries. The dream of such as Otto von Habsburg and Franz Joseph Strauss continues its evolution.

That which is currently lacking—a prime need that is patently obvious for all to see among France’s and Germany’s present woes—is a strength of political will and timely leadership to pull off the final phase of the grand European design.

European politics are about to take a sudden turn to the right. History shows that times of extreme crisis supply fertile ground for the rise of populist demagogues promoted as saviors of their nations.

Overriding all the present woes of France and Germany, indeed all nations of Europe, is a growing tide of Islamic religious fanaticism sweeping up from the south. It’s a steady migratory invasion that even now knocks at the very doors of Rome, Paris and Berlin. Just count the mosques in those cities!

Pope John Paul ii, recognizing the great risk this southern onslaught was having on a Europe adrift from its traditional Roman Catholic moral underpinnings, cried out to Europe to find its historical roots. Those roots stem from the religion of Rome.

In his recent audience with Edmond Stoiber’s delegation from Bavaria, Pope Benedict xvi reminded the group of the special affinity Bavaria has with the traditions of Greece, Rome and Jerusalem. It is from those traditions that Rome has fashioned its religion, the religion that gave force and unity to the nations of Europe in the form of an empire which lasted for 1,260 years from its restoration by Justinian to its demise under Napoleon Bonaparte—the Roman Empire. Under the combined leadership of Rome and Germany, from the time of Charlamagne, it became known as the Holy Roman Empire.

The European Union faces a steady onslaught on its culture, its traditions, and its political cohesion from a reviving church-state combine, a veritable Muslim crusade with its roots in old Persia, modern-day Iran. Pope Benedict recognizes that the only way to stem this tide is with an equal and opposite church-state combine. His leadership is already working to strengthen the religious component of that equation. But he sees a European continent crying out for a strong, assertive political leader.

Europe’s coming winter of discontent may well create the climate of extreme crisis on that continent which propels that leader to the forefront!

Edmund Stoiber left Rome last week with Benedict’s words ringing in his ears—an urge to revive and strengthen the philosophical underpinnings which Europe was founded upon: Greece, Rome and Jerusalem. This pope is calling for religious revival in Europe. But he needs a trusted, committed, powerful political personality embedded in Europe to aid this campaign and help mount a war of resistance against the rising Islamic tide. It is more than coincidental that these two Bavarians have come to the forefront at this particular moment in history.

Journalists and commentators ignorant of history, and grossly ignorant of biblical prophecy, predict Stoiber’s political demise in the wake of his resignation from the struggling grand alliance in Berlin. These are the same voices that earlier claimed Cardinal Ratzinger was too right-wing to gain the papal vote.

The most powerful of Catholic right-wing personalities now sits on the papal throne. This will soon be matched by the most right-wing of Europe’s influential political leaders gaining power in Europe’s time of crisis. We should not at all be surprised if that personality turns out to be—like Pope Benedict—a committed German Roman Catholic who hails from Bavaria.