It may be three decades since the Berlin wall came down but too many others have recently proliferated.
2016: Europe’s Year Of Living On The Edge
This new year of 2016 has begun badly. ISIS attacks in Istanbul and Jakarta. Stock market jitters. Violence, including rape, upon women in Germany, Sweden and Zurich – apparently by asylum-seekers in some cases. Deflation. Breaches of the separation of powers/rule of law in Poland. The unexpected death of David Bowie, who incorporated the changing […]
Marine Le Pen’s Tide Is Far From Ebbing
Well, that’s OK then. The second round of France’s regional elections has seen the clear winner of the first, Marine Le Pen and her Front National, leave empty-handed. The FN, top in six of the 13 regions on December 6, won none. It came third in the overall poll on 27.4% compared with 40% for […]
Europe At A Murderous Crossroads
Our Facebook portraits are draped in the tricolore, special twibbons adorn our Twitter profiles, public buildings are splashed blue, white and red, we “pray for Paris,” we sing the Marseillaise, Nous sommes tous des parisiens: the aftermath of Friday evening’s pitiless slaughter of scores of mainly young friends enjoying themselves has seen an outpouring of […]
Germany Undoes 70 Years Of European Policy
When I was a correspondent in Germany two decades ago, in the run-up to unification and thereafter, interviews with Helmut Kohl, Hans-Dietrich Genscher and other senior politicians – such as Wolfgang Schäuble, who negotiated the two Germanys into one – would always end with the mantra: “We want a European Germany, not a German Europe.” […]
A Franco-German Social Democrat Plan for Reviving the EU
They are a political odd couple, Emmanuel Macron and Sigmar Gabriel, yet they have together put out a radical proposal for reforming the EU/EZ that might just help revive the tired and troubled social democratic project in Europe. The ideas they present are certainly different from the ultra-cautious petits pas recently proposed by the current […]
Seismic Change In The UK And EU Political Landscape
On the 70th anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) Day the United Kingdom awoke to stark evidence it is in reality the Disunited Kingdom as never before. The political landscape thrown into relief by the general election of May 7 is in the throes of seismic change. There is a serious prospect that Scotland, propelled […]