European governments are struggling through an epidemic of instability. Germany, France, Austria, Spain, Romania and Belgium all have serious leadership issues right now.

In a union of 27 member states, someone will have government troubles at any given time. But to have three out of Europe’s four largest economies in crisis is much more rare.

Europe’s leadership void will soon transform the Continent.

Germany: An Official Ending

Germany’s coalition government officially fell on December 16. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in the Bundestag: 394 lawmakers voted to end the government, 207 voted to continue, and 116 abstained.

This has been inevitable since the Free Democrats left his coalition. Now President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has to decide to dissolve parliament. It is possible to create a new coalition without elections, but no one seems keen on that option so far. If Steinmeier dissolves parliament, new elections must be held within 60 days.

Yet these elections seem to have no chance of fixing anything. The far-right Alternative für Deutschland is polling at 20 percent. The far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance is polling around 5 percent. Most mainstream groups won’t work with these two at the national level. But that means ignoring 25 percent of the vote. It’s hard to form a stable, united coalition.

Austria: Never-ending Negotiations

Austria’s experience shows the trouble in avoiding these fringe parties. The Freedom Party of Austria (fpö) won the national election for the first time ever on September 29. The party, founded by two former SS officers, is considered far right. It has been part of coalition governments before but never led one.

To stop that from happening, the center left and right parties are trying to form an unwieldy coalition with a third party. They’ve been negotiating for nearly three months and hope to finally have a deal sometime in January.

Even so, this won’t be a stable government. And the effort to block the fringe only increases its support. On November 24, the Austrian state of Styria held elections, which the fpö won with 35 percent of the vote. “There’s been a landslide in Styria. I didn’t expect such a resounding result,” the fpö’s deputy leader in Styria, Stefan Hermann, said.

If Germany ignores the fringe parties, it risks seeing the fringe grow in support.

France: The End of the Fifth Republic?

Pundits talk about the European Union being powered by the “Franco-German engine,” the traditional leaders of Europe. That’s out of date: It’s been clear for many years that Germany now dominates alone. But if anyone could provide leadership while Germany is in disarray, it would be France.

The trouble is, France is in worse chaos—with some predicting the end of the Fifth Republic and a new constitution.

The trouble began when the fringe right National Rally (formerly the National Front) won European elections in June. To have an extreme party come in first place was a major embarrassment for French President Emmanuel Macron. To recover, he immediately called national elections—gambling that in “real” elections, the French would return to more traditional parties.

They didn’t. National Rally won the first round and were only blocked from taking first place by tactical voting in the second round.

The result is a National Assembly almost equally divided between the far right, center and far left. It agrees on almost nothing. But France cannot hold another election until one year has passed. Macron’s prime minister, Michel Barnier, became the shortest-lived in modern French history after the Assembly passed a censure motion against his government on December 4.

France’s debt is 110 percent the size of its economy. Germany’s is only 62 percent. France’s debt is growing by about 6 percent of gdp per year. Three percent is the legal limit for EU members. It desperately needs to get spending under control.

But Barnier could not get his spending cuts and tax rises through Parliament. As a result, Moody’s downgraded French debt from Aa2 to Aa3. France has to pay more to borrow money than Greece does.

Macron appointed François Bayrou as the new prime minister. He’s already struggling. On top of the insoluble financial crisis, he is being heavily criticized for his handling of Cyclone Chido, which hit some French possessions in the Indian Ocean.

France’s debt alone prevents it from replacing Germany as Europe’s leader. If cash is needed, only Germany can provide it. Macron seems like he’d love to be a strongman and dominate Europe. But his domestic problems prevent him. France is too unstable to be Europe’s new anchor.

Spain: A Zombie Government

Spain is Europe’s fourth largest economy and fourth most populous nation. Its government isn’t dead—perhaps “undead” would be a better term. It lost its majority in parliament but is still lumbering forward.

Spain’s Socialists rule as a minority government, with support from the Catalan separatist Junts party. However Junts withdrew its support and called for a vote of no confidence in the Socialist government on December 9.

Under Spain’s constitution, it cannot force the Socialists out unless a majority in parliament can agree on a replacement government. That’s not going to happen. So the Socialists limp on, unable to get anything controversial through parliament or make major decisions.

Belgium and More

Belgium is not exactly an EU heavyweight, but it hosts the headquarters of many European institutions. It held an election on June 9; after six months, it still doesn’t have a coalition. The Netherlands has a government, but it is so fragile, it threatens to fall apart at every bump in the road. Romania just canceled its presidential elections after accusing Russia of trying to steal it.

None of these countries could replace German leadership. But it shows the leaderless trend goes beyond Germany. All Europe has a leadership crisis.

An End to Democracy?

A strong leader rising to dominate Europe is one of our longest-standing forecasts. The 1954 Plain Truth stated:

Germany inevitably [will] emerge as the leader of a united Europe. It will require some spiritual binding force to inspire this confidence—to remove these fears—and that spiritual binding force must arise from inside Europe! All Europe is actually ready—just waiting for the confidence-inspiring leader …. That man is there somewhere.

In the May 1953 Good News, Mr. Armstrong wrote, “[I]t is probable that none but a German can provide the dynamic, inspired leadership required to organize such a political military federation.”

European nations are becoming “distrustful of America and thinking more and more about uniting themselves into a united states of Europe,” he wrote in March 1950. To do that, they need a “new supreme leader—the successor of Adolf Hitler—to rise up and assert himself and take command.”

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry continued that same warning the first year the magazine was established—and every year since.

“If a real crisis develops, will the Germans call for a new führer?” he asked in the December 1991 issue. “Your Bible says that is going to happen! That crisis will probably be triggered by an economic collapse in the [United States].”

This forecast is informed by Bible prophecy.

Daniel 8 and 11 are full of prophecy God gave around 500 years before Jesus Christ was born. Some of these prophecies have now become history. A great “king of Grecia” attacked Persia, just as Daniel 8:20-21 foretold, in 323 b.c. His name was Alexander the Great. But Daniel wrote that much of the prophecy in these chapters is for “the time of the end” (Daniel 8:17; 11:40).

Daniel 11:40-45 contain a closely related end-time prophecy. It speaks of a world power called “the king of the north,” which shall rise “at the time of the end.” Just like the king in Daniel 8, this leader will also “come to his end.”

This individual and the king of Daniel 8:23-24 are the same man. Daniel 11 shows that the king of the north is a modern successor to the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire.

Daniel 8:23-24 describe the rise of “a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences.” Verse 25 says he will be defeated after he stands up “against the Prince of princes,” revealing the time frame for this fierce king’s reign: the end time, right before Jesus Christ’s Second Coming.

Daniel 11:21 describes how this man will come to power. The European people “shall not give” this Antiochus “the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.” Barnes’ Notes on the Old and New Testaments states, “[I]n other words, it should not be conferred on him by any law or act of the nation, or in any regular succession or claim.”

“This man doesn’t come to power the honorable way—by being voted into office,” Mr. Flurry wrote in November 2002. “He takes it dishonorably! He will work behind the scenes and come to power by flatteries—not votes!”

In the latest Trumpet print issue, Mr. Flurry pointed to an example that shows how this could unfold:

We saw something similar with the way Kamala Harris was selected as the Democratic nominee for president. There was no Democratic Party primary, no normal process of voting. Could Germany’s drawn-out election cycle and weak coalition lead to something similar? There is already great urgency for a strong leader. In a crisis, Germany’s elites may decide there is no time to appoint someone democratically—they could step in and select a leader quickly. But this man will hijack the whole alliance, and it will turn out very differently from what a lot of people want it to be.

With no strong leadership in sight, will people be tempted to shortcut democracy? Earlier in the year, one third of Austrians said they agreed with the statement, “I would like to see a strongman at the head of this country who doesn’t have to worry about a parliament.”

Conditions are ripe for the rise of this strongman.

Italy: The Savior?

Italy used to be the butt of European jokes because of how quickly it cycled through governments. But Giorgia Meloni is the only major, stable European leader. Could she play a role in solving Europe’s leadership crisis?

Daniel 7, Revelation 13 and Revelation 17 also describe the soon-coming European empire. All describe a series of “beasts.” The Bible clearly explains that these beasts are “kingdoms” (Daniel 7:23).

Revelation 17 informs us that 10 other kings “receive power as kings one hour with the beast” (verse 12). This king rules over a group of nations. These 10 “have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast” (verse 13).

The passage makes clear that this empire rises and falls seven times. The empire rising in Europe right now is a resurrection of what has gone before. The last time we saw one empire dominating Europe was World War ii.

Meloni looks like a strong, conservative leader. But her party is a political descendant of the fascist party of Benito Mussolini. Revelation 17 states that this European “beast” goes underground (verse 8). It disappears from the scene only to rise later. Mussolini’s fascists went underground—and they’re coming back in parties founded by facists or SS members.

“Hitler became the sixth head of the Holy Roman Empire, and Italy enabled it to happen,” Mr. Flurry wrote after Meloni’s election. “Will history repeat itself?” (emphasis mine).

Meloni gets on well with Elon Musk. “She’s fantastic,” said Donald Trump. “She’s a fantastic leader and a person.” Italy is too weak to lead Europe. But as a rare, stable leader over its third-largest economy, Meloni may be strong enough to help this strongman into power. Meloni also has close links with the Catholic Church. Revelation 17 describes the coming beast power as led by a woman—a church in Biblical symbolism. The Catholic Church will also likely play a role in bringing this strong German leader to power.

The stage is set for a strong leader to rise to power. This is a critical moment in Bible prophecy. You have a front row seat in watching prophecy unfold—if you study and prove that prophecy for yourself. It is well worth investing the time. You will see God’s power in the world and the Bible’s relevancy to modern life. Our free booklet A Strong German Leader Is Imminent will help you prove this for yourself.