Sick man of Europe
[2] Throughout the 1960s to the 1980s, the term was also most notably used for the United Kingdom when it lost its superpower status as the Empire crumbled and its home islands experienced significant deindustrialization, coupled with high inflation and industrial unrest – such as the Winter of Discontent – including having to seek loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
[5] As of 2024, Germany is most commonly referred to as the 'Sick Man of Europe' due to its consistently stagnant economy and in particular, its industrial base, since the COVID-19 pandemic[6] and the loss of access to inexpensive energy resulting from the Nord Stream pipelines sabotage.
It is, indeed, hardly within the range of probability that another twelvemonth should pass over the House of Habsburg without bringing upon the Austrian Empire a catastrophe unmatched in modern history since the downfall of Poland.
[2] During the 1950s, France was characterized as the "sick man of Europe", due to a combination of economic issues and a fading optimism since the country was reestablished after World War II.
[32] In the late 1990s, Germany was often labeled with this term because of its economic problems, especially due to the costs of German reunification after 1990, which were estimated to amount to over €1.5 trillion (statement of Freie Universität Berlin).
[38][39] In 2008, in an opinion piece criticizing the country's approach to economic reform, The Daily Telegraph also used the term to describe Italy,[40] as did a CNBC op-ed in 2020.
In the 1917 article by Charles Richard Crane, the illness metaphor is used more directly, with the empire described as "Suffering From Overdose of Exaggerated Modernism in Socialist Reform Ideas", and "the danger for the patient lay in the fact that too many quacks and ignorant specialists were contending for the right to be admitted to the bedside and administer nostrums.
"[45]Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, the United Kingdom was sometimes characterized as the "sick man of Europe", first by commentators, and later at home by critics of the third Wilson/Callaghan ministry due to industrial strife and poor economic performance compared with other European countries.
At different points throughout the decade, numerous countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, and Greece were cited by the American business press as being "on the verge of sickness" as well.
[5] The term was used frequently by the early 2020s with regards to the economic effects of Brexit, ongoing industrial action in the public sector, leadership turmoil within the Conservative party, and the cost of living crisis.
[47][48][49] As of June 2023, the label is still frequently applied to the United Kingdom as inflation and price increases continue to generate economic uncertainty within the country.
[50] The term was also more literally applied during the COVID-19 pandemic after a new strain of coronavirus, the Alpha variant, led to a number of countries closing their borders to UK air travel.
[51] Swedish Diplomat and former Prime Minister Carl Bildt once referred to Serbia under the rule of Slobodan Milošević as a candidate for the new "sick man of Europe" in 1997.
