STOCKHOLM (AP) – Paris, Copenhagen, Brussels. In just over a year three European capitals have been ravaged by bombs and gunfire.
After each attack life slowly returns to normal. But it’s a new normal for Europe, where terror alerts are always on high and where people in cities so far spared major violence assume it’s a matter of when, not if.
“With each atrocity that occurs we change,” said Ian Duncan, a Scottish member of the European Parliament in Brussels. “We become less open. We pull down barriers and close doors. But it is a direction we are following now.”
The carnage in Brussels on Tuesday came as Europe was still reeling from the November attacks by Islamic militants in Paris that killed 130 people. In the following months France and Belgium have looked like countries at least partially at war, with soldiers in the streets, lockdowns and deadly shootouts with militants.
The rest of Europe has watched with trepidation.