It's definitely due the erosion of living conditions and increasing discontent of the people towards the state as a way to crackdown on criticism and discontent.

Because there's a surge of fascism and they think they can get it

European elites are worried about losing control, and they are responding by restricting freedoms.

The Palestine/Gaza issue is one concrete example: European elites are very pro-Israel and pro-Genocide. But they have completely failed to control the narrative and European populations are not as pro-Israel as their elites.

We are realistically looking at losing between 200 million and 1 billion people over the next 20 years due to climate-change induced famine and heat stroke. Those are realistic estimates. More optimistic scenarios could make that number less, more pessimistic ones could reduce it. We are on the eve of what future histories may refer to as the Great Hunger.

Even for those lucky enough to not live in regions being rendered uninhabitable, the quality of life for the average citizen is collapsing. The developing world will experience mass famine. The developed world will experience food prices not seen since the advent of mechanized agriculture. Home prices will continue to become more unaffordable, as more and more homes are destroyed by rapidly increasing natural disasters. In the US, tens of millions of homeowners are going to have their primary asset, their homes, rendered completely worthless after they become uninsurable. Governments can try to prop up the insurance market if they want, but not even national governments have the resources to subsidize an insurance market in an era of spiraling natural catastrophes.

Leaders around the world see a future of chaos, famine, and strife. Really all the Four Horseman are coming out. In developed countries, leaders fear millions of desperate poor people from developing countries trying to cross their borders. Internally, they fear violence by their own populations, who are seeing their standard of living rapidly collapse.

The borders are being locked down. The walls are going up. People everywhere are being increasingly surveilled and controlled. Political leaders might be cynical enough to deny climate change for political gain, but that doesn't mean they're ignorant to the actual future we're running headfirst into. Technology is also advancing, allowing "mass shooter" type individuals to potentially cause much larger acts of destruction in the future.

Most governments would prefer to maintain power by actually improving the lives of their citizens. That's the safest and most moral approach. But in a world of rapidly spiraling climate change, governments simply are not capable of on improving the lives of their citizens. They can't even maintain the standard of living their citizens already have. So, the leaders have to turn to more brute force methods to retain control. Best to be loved. But if you can't be loved, then at least be feared.

I get the impression that there are a lot of bot answers here. So well articulated, but barely connected to the questions.

Authoritarianism

They are gearing up for war.

Its coordinated nudging from western governments across the world. Europe, Aus, NZ, Canada. Its the same messaging coming out of all of them, digital ID, currency etc. Tin foil hat moment, its a UN/WEF push to have global government. Nudge being a small step at a time so you hardly notice your being boiled. The saving grace is governments push for ever increasing control doesn't allow for human nature.

Centralization tends be self-reinforcing. Social unrest might cause the public to demand more safety measures, which usually come at the expense of freedoms. I’d also wager that the lower the level of trust in government is, the more they want to impose control and authority.

And in the EU specifically it is because lobbyists have been working overtime to try and pass chat control: https://borncity.com/win/2023/09/27/european-union-which-lobby-organizations-are-behind-the-plans-for-chat-control/

For those here who didn't know specifics, as far as I know the EU has announced in July 2025 guidelines, set to come into effect until 2026, that seem to basically be the same as the UK online safety act:

https://www.eunews.it/en/2025/07/14/the-eu-launches-an-online-age-verification-app-pilot-project-in-five-member-states-including-italy/

https://www.mlex.com/mlex/articles/2368265/online-services-get-up-to-12-months-to-apply-age-verification-eu-guidelines-say

https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/redirection/document/118226

These guidelines say, among other things, check the last link: "Where the provider of the online platform has identified medium risks to minors on their platform as established in its risk review [...] and those risks cannot be mitigated by less restrictive measures. The Commission considers this will be the case where the risk is not high enough to require access restriction based on age verification but not low enough that it would be appropriate to not have any access restriction [...]" And "Self-declaration is not considered to be an appropriate age-assurance measure as further explained below."

If you don't want the Online Safety Act in the EU, call or e-mail your representative now. If you enter your country here, it shows a list: https://fightchatcontrol.eu/#delegates As far as I can tell, unless it's reversed this will be coming soon. The clock is ticking.

The genocide in Gaza and the massive response against it made them realize that they no longer had the ability to control the narrative despite their best efforts to spread Zionist propaganda. The so called "free world" has always relied on being able to sway public opinion and manufacture consent through media when necessary. Now that it's stopped working because of people's access to media on the internet that contradicts their claims, they decided it's time to push a more restrictive regime in order to deal with the issue.

It's due to Palantir and co, lobbying various European governments in recent years. Look at which EU governments are Palantir's clients.

Gaza

Another factor is the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. Late capitalism has to keep finding more and more shameless ways to squeeze regular people as the easy money recedes. Lobbyists are pushing harder to lock people into a few big services and subscriptions so they are forced to yield more personal data and spending money.