Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis compared the EU to the Roman Empire in decline; Who Would Be Emperor If the Roman Empire Still Existed Today?

(Grok AI illustration)

COGwriter

Some see the EU in decline, while others see it has potential to become a type of ‘Holy Roman Empire.’

Notice something related to decline:

EU following path of Roman Empire’s decline – Czech PM

31 May 2026

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has compared the EU to the Roman Empire in its twilight years, arguing that Brussels is weakening the bloc through its economic, climate, and security policies.

Babis returned to office in December after his ANO movement won 34.5% of the vote and 80 seats in the 200-member lower house of parliament. Since then, he has positioned himself as a leading advocate of national sovereignty, a reassessment of EU policies, and a more pragmatic approach to Europe’s economic and security challenges.

In an interview published on Sunday, Babis accused Brussels of steering the bloc’s economy toward decline through what he called its aggressive decarbonization agenda. “The EU is now probably on the same road as the end of the Roman empire,” he told the FT.

The EU’s push to phase out fossil fuels has become increasingly divisive …

The economic pressures, security concerns, and reliance on external military protection underpin Babis’ comparison with ancient Rome.

The Roman Empire’s later centuries were marked by political instability, economic strain, and military overstretch. It became increasingly reliant on foreign troops while struggling to finance its defenses, as trade and economic activity declined and external pressures mounted. https://www.rt.com/news/640781-eu-roman-empire-decline-czech-pm/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Well, the Roman Empire ended and the official ‘Holy Roman Empire’ did as well.

Yet the Bible shows that despite being divided, and written off as dead, it will rise again and cause the world to marvel:

41 Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. 43 As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. (Daniel 2:41-43)

1 Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. 2 Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. 4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:1-4)

How?

The Bible teaches that Europe will reorganize:

12 “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. 13 These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. 14 These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.” (Revelation 17:12-13)

Note: I believe that the toes of Daniel 2:41, which would be ten, correspond with the ten kings in Revelation 17:12 (see Must the Ten Kings of Revelation 17:12 Rule over Ten Currently Existing Nations?). So, I also later learned, did the old WCG:

“And in the days of these kings… .” It is here speaking of the ten toes, part of iron and part of brittle clay. This, by connecting the prophecy with Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 and 17, is referring to the new UNITED STATES OF EUROPE, which is now forming out of the European Common Market before your very eyes! Revelation 17:12 makes plain the detail that it shall be a union of ten KINGS OR KINGDOMS that (Rev. 17:8) shall resurrect the medieval “HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. …

The seventh is now forming—the last, final, brief resurrection of the “Holy Roman Empire” by ten European groups or nations.  (Armstrong HW. 7 PROOFS OF GOD’S TRUE CHURCH: Part Four. Plain Truth, May 1979; that same exact quote is also in his 1985 book: The Bible Superstition or Authority? …and can you prove it?)

Last Summer, a reader from Italy sent me a link in Italian (https://www.maurizioblondet.it/scritti-sull-imperium/) which I machine-translated into English. Here are some excerpts:

WRITINGS ON THE IMPERIUM

The writings on the Imperium collect some reflections that the Author, Cosmo Intini, musician and scholar of Christian Wisdom … 

The crisis of the West’s socio-cultural, economic, and even religious model has highlighted Europe’s spiritual need to recover its “traditional identity.” This is necessary to address the challenges posed by a geopolitical future marked by “multipolarity.”

According to the Author, the Imperium, as a “traditional and sacred” archetype, represents the only irreplaceable “model” capable of satisfying the need to free oneself from the suffocating and harmful “unipolar Atlanticist” yoke, to assume an adequate structuring and strength of values and an equal ontological dignity with respect to those realities that are emerging according to similar political-identity paths and with which it will soon have to confront.

From the perspective of a fruitful and synergistic repositioning of the Empire alongside the Papacy (the necessary restoration of the Regalitas alongside the Sacerdotium, within the Roman Ecclesia), Sacred and Imperial Europe will be able to continue to carry out that function of Katechon which was providentially assigned to it since its rise on the vestiges of the most ancient and glorious Romanitas … 07/23/25 https://www.maurizioblondet.it/scritti-sull-imperium/

Note he wants religion and the papacy to work with an European Empire similar to historical alliances in the past.

So, this is another call for Europe to bind with Greco-Roman Catholicism in an effort to re-create a type of ‘Holy Roman Empire.”

While both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis called for that, we have also seen some secular leaders do the same (e.g. RI: Hungarian PM Says Only Solution to World’s Problems Is Return to Christianity (Orban); COGwriter: It is not original Christianity that Victor Orban wants).

Yesterday, I ran across an article from 2024 I had not seen before, followed by another than I had:

Could the European Union last for 1,000 years? It’s not as crazy as it sounds

May 27, 2024

The negative consequences of celebrating unique national identities became clear after virulent nationalism led to the rise of Nazi Germany and World War II left Europe in ruins.

The European Union seeks to prevent this from happening again by restoring the cosmopolitanism, size, and economic clout of a multinational empire but without creating a unitary state in the process. …

The Holy Roman Empire successfully managed the affairs of central Europe by creating a similar composite political structure beginning in 962 under Otto I. In a bid to create unity in the German lands, where the Romans never ruled, the Holy Roman Empire proclaimed itself the successor to the long-dead Roman Empire as the defender of a Catholic Christian Europe. Lacking a single capital and imperial army, it did not seem to be much of an empire. …

That the Holy Roman Empire survived for 900 years suggests that it was on to something, and that the EU can be viewed as a secular reincarnation of it—minus only an emperor’s crown and Christian faith as symbols of its unity. …

The EU Parliament resembled the representative Diets of the Holy Roman Empire in their multiple meeting places and the disconnection between that body and a weak executive. …

A similarly decentralized Holy Roman Empire lasted close to a millennium in the German world and northern Italy … https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/could-the-european-union-last-for-1000-years-its-not-as-crazy-as-it-sounds/

7 October 2024

The European Union project might appear unprecedented but it is not. The Holy Roman Empire successfully managed the affairs of central Europe by creating a similar composite political structure. …

The EU is designed as a supranational polity where member states retain their national sovereignty and parochial identities but agree to be bound by its laws. They maintain their own armies, independent foreign policies, national parliaments and are free to leave if they so choose. The creation of such a chimeric political beast might appear unpreceded but it is not. The Holy Roman Empire successfully managed the affairs of central Europe by creating a similar composite political structure beginning in 962 under Otto I. In a bid to create unity in the German lands, where the Romans never ruled, the Holy Roman Empire proclaimed itself the successor to the long-dead Roman Empire as the defender of a Catholic Christian Europe. https://observatory.wiki/A_Historical_Case_for_Why_the_EU_Could_Endure_for_More_Than_1%2C000_Years?utm

Notice something from a book by Hungary’s then Ambassador to the Vatican:

The Holy Roman Empire … was shaped by, the Habsburg family for hundreds of years …

Holy Roman Empire … by the Middle Ages, this state structure governed most of the Roman Empire’s former territory including Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia, Czeck Republic, the territory of today’s Poland, and Northern Italy.

The idea of centralized government in the Habsburg lands began to advance under Maria Theresia. … In some ways, centalization was inspired by the Masonic idea that reason could determine the best policy, and therefore that all change could come from above and be implemented by a small, virtuous elite.

In the end, the idea of empire (in German reich) has shaped Europe for nearly six hundred years, with greater and lesser success. But one historical curiosity above the Holy Roman Empire is that, according to legal scholars, it never officially, legally ended. … even after 1806 when the Holy Roman Empire ended. … So, very technically speaking, empire continues to even to this day. … perhaps one day in the future it will once again be “en-soul” a united Europe?

Dr. Otto von Habsburg … From the birth of the Paneuropa Union, in 1952, Otto fought for a united Europe … In 1973, Otto became head of the International Paneuropa Movement, and in 1979 he was elected to the European Parliament for the first time. … he insisted that symbolic seats in the Parliament be kept empty for the future for countries still trapped behind the Iron Curtain. …

We Habsburgs still live by traditional family values and live by them. … Are we waiting for the monarchy to return? No. (Or are we?)

(Habsburg E. The Habsburg Way: Seven Rules for Turbulent Times. Sophia Institute Press, 2023)

So, apparently on paper, according to Eduard Habsburg, the Holy Roman Empire has not actually ended.

The reality is that, with the exception of Switzerland (which has many EU ties, but is not officially part of it), the territory the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ once controlled is part of the European Union.

It is also of interest to note that Eduard Hapsburg was advocating for some type of Holy Roman Empire with perhaps a monarch ruling over it.

Speaking of monarch’s to rule the ‘Holy Roman Empire,’ a news search today brought up the following:

Who Would Be Emperor If the Roman Empire Still Existed Today?

March 10, 2026

During Wimbledon a few years ago, a thread about King Felipe VI of Spain went viral. … Even when not attending major sporting events, the king’s collars always hug his neck, his lapels are always well-proportioned, the lines of his coat always flow into his trousers, and his four-in-hand always has just the right asymmetry. For my money, such self-presentation befits not just a monarch, but indeed an emperor.

It so happens that Felipe is one of the most plausible candidates for that job, at least in the hypothetical scenario that the Roman Empire never declined and fell. …

So who would rightfully rule over a still-extant Roman Empire? … In addition to Felipe, the roster of potential modern-day Roman emperors … the claimants who could draw their legitimacy from the legacy of the Holy Roman Empire live on: the still relatively young Jean-Christophe Napoléon, a descendant of Bonaparte’s brother, and Karl von Habsburg, the undisputed current head of the eponymous house. In favor of each candidate, one can make a variety of arguments political, cultural, and geographical. https://www.openculture.com/2026/03/who-would-be-emperor-if-the-roman-empire-still-existed-today.html

Let me add one name to the above list: Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. Notice the following:

Karl-Theodor’s mother, Christiane Gräfin und Edle Herrin von und zu Eltz genannt Faust von Stromberg (now Christiane Henkell-von Ribbentrop), is a member of the Eltz family, which has strong ties with Croatia. She is the daughter of Jakob von und zu Eltz, a former President of the Association of Winemakers in Rheingau who became active in Croatian politics after Croatian independence, and is related to the princely family of Liechtenstein and is also a descendant of the Habsburg-Lothringen imperial family, including Maria Theresa of Austria. (KARL THEODOR ZU GUTTENBERG. http://dictionnaire.sensagent.leparisien.fr/KARL%20THEODOR%20ZU%20GUTTENBERG/en-en/ accessed 05/14/18)

As it turns out, Austrian Karl von Habsburg shares Maria Theresa of Austria with Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg as one of his ancestors also.

So, while the EU is not the final Beast (see The European Union and the Seven Kings of Revelation 17), Europe will change (Revelation 17:12-13).

And it may be the leader will be a Habsburg.

And as Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is actually a Habsburg, as he has Habsburg descent, he remains one to watch (cf. Mark 13:37).