Deconstructing European identity in the context of the current geopolitical crisis

The article examines the profound crisis of European collective identity exacerbated by a series of interrelated challenges: the COVID-19 pandemic, the migration crisis, the military conflict in Ukraine and the shift in the global order. The author argues that in a strategic perspective it is the ideological and civilizational issues related to identity which are crucial for Europe’s future rather than tactical, economic and political problems. The research methodology consists of a critical analysis of the politicization of identity as a destructive tool in the hands of elites, leading to radical societal polarization (“identity wars”). Particular attention is paid to the structural contradictions within the EU: the horizontal stratification between the Western European “core” and the Eastern European “periphery” subject to intra-European orientalism and the vertical stratification – the growing economic inequality that erodes the middle class. The conclusion is drawn that the dominant neoliberal discourse from Brussels, the pursuit of total control (illustrated by the pandemic measures) and militarization do not foster consolidation but, on the contrary, lead to the loss of a constructive pan-European identity. As an alternative, the author points to the formation of new forms of solidarity in digital spaces free from ideological pressure and emphasizes the need to overcome the hierarchical logic in relations between the “old” and “new” Europe to resolve the systemic crisis.