Thought Woke Was Dead? Brussels Says It’s a Top Political Priority for 2026

"Brussels doubles down on gender, diversity, and decarbonisation while Europe’s strategic and social problems are pushed aside."

From The European Conservative

By Javier Villamor

Brussels doubles down on gender, diversity, and decarbonisation while Europe’s strategic and social problems are pushed aside.

The European Commission has just made public its political priorities for 2026, and the result is hard to justify from any minimally realistic perspective. In an international context marked by war, geopolitical competition, energy insecurity, and internal social deterioration, Brussels has chosen to double down on an ideological agenda that appears utterly detached from the material reality facing Europeans.

While much of the world is moving towards more pragmatic positions on foreign policy, defence, and economic sovereignty, the European Union insists on turning climate and gender ideology into the central pillars of its political action.

The contrast speaks for itself. Among the issues the Commission claims to be leaving behind are matters that are central to everyday life and to the continent’s strategic stability: the war in Ukraine, dependence on Russian gas, soaring housing costs, job insecurity, and growing social divisions. In their place, the priorities for 2026 amount to a familiar repetition of vague and politically charged concepts: “democracy and European values,” gender equality, LGBT rights, accelerated decarbonisation, online safety, and sustainable finance. The message is unmistakable: structural problems are relegated to the background in favour of a cultural and identity-driven agenda.

This approach is no accident. It faithfully reflects the 2024–2029 Political Guidelines presented by the President of the Commission, which enshrine the continuity of the Green Deal, the expansion of equality and diversity policies, and a militant understanding of the “defence of democracy,” increasingly framed as control over public discourse and digital spaces.

Under the banner of fighting disinformation and extremism, Brussels is strengthening its regulatory impulse over the media, social networks, and algorithms, while sidestepping any serious debate on genuine pluralism and freedom of expression.

At the same time, climate obsession continues to occupy centre stage, despite its economic and social costs. The Commission insists on accelerating decarbonisation and deepening the Green Deal model even as European industry loses competitiveness, middle classes struggle with high energy prices, and key countries outside the EU unapologetically prioritise energy security and economic growth. Official rhetoric speaks of a “just transition” but the reality is an accumulation of regulations that penalise farmers, SMEs, and strategic industrial sectors.

A similar dynamic is at play with the identity agenda. The active promotion of gender and LGBT policies is presented as a cross-cutting priority, detached from any meaningful democratic debate within the member states. This is no longer about guaranteeing fundamental rights—something few contest—but about imposing a specific anthropological and cultural vision as if it were an unquestionable European consensus. Far from fostering cohesion, this drift fuels public disaffection and reinforces the perception of an EU disconnected from the real concerns of families, especially in the midst of an unprecedented demographic crisis.

All of this unfolds at a time when the Commission itself explicitly acknowledges the seriousness of the larger international situation and the need to invest more in defence and security. The strategic documents underline the fragility of the global order, migration pressures, and external threats, yet these acknowledgements coexist unashamedly with a hierarchy of priorities that, in practice, relegates them to a secondary role.

The outcome is a schizophrenic European policy: the rhetoric of geopolitical emergency combined with action focused on social engineering and maximalist climate objectives.