EU politics
Macron and Trump’s doomed bromance is good news for Le Pen
Emmanuel Macron’s hosting of sixty world leaders in Paris last weekend to commemorate the centenary of the Armistice has turned…
Angela Merkel is already making life difficult for her successor
“May Day, May Day. We are sinking.” “This is the German Coast Guard. What are you thinking?” This advert for…
How Cameron’s misreading of Merkel led to Brexit
It is impossible to overstate Angela Merkel’s significance, to Germany, to the EU, and to Britain. Others are better qualified than…
France is fracturing but Macron remains in denial
As chalices go, few are as poisoned as the one Emmanuel Macron has just handed Christophe Castaner. Minister of the…
The euro is the source of Macron’s troubles
A new interior minister. A new agriculture and culture minister. There wasn’t, despite some speculation, a new prime minister, but…
Sweden’s PM is out – but for how long?
If Theresa May feels a bit disoriented and lonely – under pressure from her own friends in parliament – she…
The EU’s migration delusion
Just as Theresa May’s Chequers plan for Brexit was being savaged in Salzburg, EU leaders also found time to engage…
Macron is quick to take on nationalism. What about Islamism?
On Sunday, I reached the summit of the col de Riou in the Pyrénées to find a shepherd tending his…
Tory apologists for Viktor Orbán should be ashamed of themselves
To think they said Brexit would cost us friends. The UK Government has found itself a new chum in Viktor…
Tory MEPs were right not to denounce Viktor Orban
You would never know it from the shrill media coverage, but Tory MEPs’ refusal to back the EU’s censure of…
The Swedish Prime Minister has gambled with his country’s future
The Swedes are going to the polls in one of the most significant bellwether-elections in Europe this year. The international…
Poland is trying a new approach with capitalism. Will it work?
After communism collapsed in 1989, Poland wiped its hands of socialism. Capitalism swept in, bringing fast-food chains and shopping malls.…
How the EU is fighting back against populism
There aren’t many EU politicians with a high profile, but Federica Mogherini, the former Italian foreign minister and, since 2014, the…
Emmanuel Macron holds Britain’s Brexit fate in his hands
C.S. Forester, creator of Hornblower, a great student of Anglo-French relations, wrote a now often overlooked exhortative novel titled Death…
Italy’s anti-immigration rhetoric is paying off for the populists
It wasn’t long ago when Italy used to be referred to colloquially as “the sick man of Europe,” a country…
How Macron is reviving Marine Le Pen’s fortunes
It says much about Europe’s political establishment that Marine Le Pen has been charged over photographs she tweeted in 2015…
Greece’s economic misery is far from over
A couple of years ago, I was driving from Athens airport to the Peloponnese along the sparkling new highway that…
Sweden must copy France’s approach to Islamic intolerance
There are 960 miles as the crow flies between Paris and Stockholm, but when it comes to dealing with Islam…
Forced marriage is the MeToo generation’s ‘no go’ subject
By now you’ve probably heard of Marie Laguerre. The 22-year-old student was punched in the face last week by a…
Elin Ersson’s ‘citizen-activism’ comes at a heavy price
Last week, a 22-year old Swede called Elin Ersson made headlines around the world for her ‘citizen-activism’. Learning that a…
Has Donald Trump finally met a European leader he can work with?
Donald Trump has finally met a European leader he can stand for more than a moment: Italy’s bookish new premier,…
Michel Barnier is wasting Theresa May’s time
How utterly predictable. As I wrote here on 5 July, Michel Barnier’s ‘considered’ judgement has been to pour a very large…
What the Benalla scandal reveals about Macron’s failing presidency
The feel-good factor Emmanuel Macron hoped would surge through France following their World Cup win has failed to materialise. The…
The EU’s migration solution? Throw cash at the problem
When European leaders met earlier this month to thrash out an agreement on migration, they succeeded in rescuing German Chancellor Angela…
How a Swedish student’s protest against forced deportation could backfire
If the Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigration party, triumphs in the country’s general election on 9 September it won’t be thanks…
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