the terror attacks in the last decades (such as the one in nice, or the bataclan, or many others) have been our 9/11 in that regard. The fearmongering that came after those was meant to justify heavily armed police (and in some cases even soldiers, i saw them in Milan) in public spaces just like the fearmongering after 9/11 was meant to justify the patriot act.

From in the last 10 years police and military presence has increased MASSIVELY across europe, and nobody noticed because at the time the media made it seem reasonable. And now the emergency is no more, but we sure as hell ain’t going back to how it was before just like the US never dropped the patriot act.