Three decades after political philosopher Francis Fukuyama declared the End of History and the “universalisation of western liberal democracy as the final form of human government”, the democratic model is under attack in many parts of the world, not least here in Europe. Populists bent on weakening the rule of law, rolling back human rights protections, subjugating the judiciary and cowing independent journalism are amplified by anything-goes social media algorithms that promote anger and polarisation over rational discourse.

They have now received a mandate from the Trump administration, which effectively declared civilisational war on the EU and its values in its National Security Strategy.

The growing failure, meanwhile, of our market democracies to deliver affordable housing, universal quality education and healthcare, and security of employment – what the economist Joseph Stiglitz calls the “inequality emergency” – is alienating many young and working-class people from democracy, fuelling the rise of illiberalism and authoritarianism.

The combination of grievance-based identity politics and what some call techno-fascism poses a danger to our democratic system of governance. It is tearing at the fabric of our liberal polities, reversing women’s and gay rights, and loosening the employment and welfare protections that are part of Europe’s social contract.

In the past 12 months alone, enemies of liberal democracy haveundermined the integrity of elections, harmed the ability of governments to implement evidence-based policy on issues such as climate change and vaccination, and weakened the role of watchdogs such as the courts, digital regulators and anti-corruption authorities.

Yet we are much better at describing and analysing – cynics say “admiring” – the problem than at crafting effective strategies to combat the forces undermining democracy. A range of suggestions for how to fight back was outlined at the annual conference of the European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels last week. But each one of them is fraught with difficulty.

Many people argued that the European Union and key national authorities such as Ireland’s communication regulator should speed up enforcing the EU’s existing digital laws. The EU has the power to fine US tech giants for failing to moderate and remove illegal content, disclose their algorithms to researchers and regulators, and protect the private data of European users.

Why is enforcement taking so long? Well, because of the rule of law. “This is a due process system,” Renate Nikolay deputy-director for communications at the European Commission said. She rejects allegations that the EU is deregulating or lowering standards as part of its drive to simplify EU legislation, or going slow out of fear of threatened US trade retaliation.

The commission has issued seven so-called preliminary findings against tech giants such as Apple, Meta, Google and TikTok, accusing them of breaching EU tech rules over issues such as denying researchers access to platforms’ data, ability to notify illegal content and challenge moderation decisions. Its most recent action was to slap a €120m fine on Elon Musk’s X (formerly known as Twitter) for making users pay for blue tick authentification without doing any effective verification.

Technology, especially AI, is advancing faster than EU regulation. The EU’s effort to prevent big tech undermining the European way of democracy is not exactly helped when Ireland, the low-tax country where many US tech companies elected to put their European headquarters, appoints a former Meta lobbyist as one of its three top data protection regulators.

For some, especially on the left, the key to preserving liberal democracy is to address people’s bread-and-butter needs for affordable housing, well-paid jobs and effective public services. They contend that the main reason for the rise of the extreme right and radical left, and their attraction for young people and old industrial workers, is the failure of the mainstream centre-left and centre-right parties that have governed for decades to deliver on these issues. In this telling, those who have lost out under neoliberalism and globalisation are wreaking revenge on liberal democracy.

The trouble is that solutions to the housing crisis reside at national and local level, not under an EU roof, and they are hard to deliver quickly because of planning regulations, nimbyism and cost. Many European social democrats and leftists are excited about the New York mayoral election victory of Zohran Mamdani on a laser-focused platform of free bus travel, rent control, public non-profit grocery stores in poor neighbourhoods, free childcare and building more affordable housing. They also point to the success of Spain’s leftwing government, which has raised social benefits and welcomed immigration while presiding over the fastest growing economy in Europe.

Yet that has not stopped the growth of far-right populism. Spain’s anti-migrant Vox party has seen its support jump from 12.4% at the 2023 general election to almost 20% now. Social democratic parties are losing ground across much of Europe.

Some democracy campaigners see the key to turning the tide in appealing to public fears by depicting the populists as a danger to the European way of life and prosperity. Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the EPC, argues that liberal democrats must start behaving as if they were in an existential fight, because they are. “Why are we not doing anything offensive, attacking the other side’s weaknesses, their disdain for the people?” he asked.

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Yet exposing past Russian financial support for Marine Le Pen’s hard right National Rally (RN) party in France, or convicting a senior figure in the UK’s rightwing populist Reform party for acting as a Kremlin agent of influence has not dimmed those movements’ popularity. Nor has exhuming past racist statements by their candidates or highlighting the incoherence of their economic platforms caused more than passing embarrassment, if that.

Dramatising a dramatic situation carries its own dangers. Framing the last US presidential election as an existential battle between democracy and authoritarianism – however accurate that may have turned out to be – did not swing voters behind Democrat Kamala Harris. Donald Trump triumphed by playing on public anger over the cost of living, immigration and perceived threats to family values and masculinity. Nor did warnings of massive economic damage, which opponents branded Project Fear, save David Cameron from losing the 2016 referendum over leaving the EU.

An alternative way propounded by some democracy campaigners is simply to do politics better and learn from the campaigns of the extremists. “We need to get back to grassroots politics,” said Lisa Witter, CEO of the Better Politics Foundation, a non-partisan centre that trains young political pros and activists in modern campaign techniques.

Populist parties have become trailblazers in the use of TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms. In Hungary, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party makes huge and effective use of paid online influencers. In Romania, the hard-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party is better at using playful apps to attract and reward young activists, and more assiduous at the shoe-leather politics of leafleting marketplaces and doorstep campaigning.

Centrist Emmanuel Macron outflanked the mainstream parties by using grassroots activism in his rise to the French presidency in 2017, and Dutch left-liberal leader Rob Jetten’s D66 party successfully used some of the same techniques to score a surprise win with a positive, pro-European message recently. But centrist populism is no guarantee of success, especially for parties that have long been in coalition governments.

Perhaps some combination of the four can save Europe’s liberal democracies, but for the moment the tide seems to be flowing strongly in the other direction.

Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre