Salazar's fascist Portugal also survived WWII. I lived in Portugal in the Carnation Revolution spring and summer of 1974 and in Spain almost all of 1976 watching two fascist regimes die.

Europe committed suicide twice in the 20th century, ceding its imperial status as the minimum efficient scale for empire building rose above that of all European nation states. The EU's shared sovereignty was the solution. But its militarily toothless by choice since the Germany that dominates Europe would have to provide the teeth. Remember DeGaulle's "real purpose of NATO" aphorism: to keep the Russians out and the Germans down. They need Uncle Sam and know it. Geopolitical power abhors the vacuum you are advocating.