Georgescu’s political detention is a fatal mistake for Romania
The most shocking political events took place on February 26 in Bucharest, where the front-runner in Romania’s presidential elections, Calin Georgescu, was seized…
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Opinion
Latest reporting and analysis on opinion.
No real shift to the Right in Germany, Merz softening his stance on migration
According to the American essayist H.L. Mencken, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
Time to end ‘pandemical nervosity’ in Europe over Trump
This has been an eventful political week for Europe.
Collapse: German centrist parties in 2013 took over 70% of vote, now less than 50%
The Euro-elite hope that Sunday’s German election marks the beginning of a German renaissance that lifts the European Union up with it. Perhaps.
Trump goes into Kremlin’s rat-infested sewer and makes a deal
Realpolitik is the virtue-free art of the politically possible.
Hey: who’s in charge here?
From the beginning of the Trump administration, Brussels-based officials have been struck by the new president’s complete lack of desire to deal with them.
Is China the new Russia, or is it a new kind of headache?
Donald Trump is back, and with him comes a foreign policy shift that is ruffling feathers from Brussels to Beijing.
The EU is ‘a political dwarf,’ here is how a euro-enthusiast sees the way forward
In the current geopolitical context, the European Union urgently needs to strengthen its credibility and relevance.
Europe: checkmate
This year will see the 80th anniversary of VE Day, i.e. Victory in Europe over Nazi Germany in May 1945.
The Vance advance and the miserable EU elites
If there is one thing Europe’s progressive elites hate more than a populist uprising, it’s an American reminding them how low they have fallen.
Many NATO members are as opposed to Ukraine membership as is Russia
Since my column last week where I attempted to examine President Trump's Gaza proposals in terms that would be more plausible to Europeans than his initial presentation,…
Migrant gangs and religious violence have made Europeans hostages in their own countries
From Taylor Swift dance classes to Christmas markets to an innocent stroll in the park or meeting some friends in the city centre of a bucolic village in southern…
Ireland, a rich parasite too mean and lazy to defend itself or Europe
The US Vice President JD Vance last week fired a warning shot for Europe’s benefit – not over its bows but deep into its rhetorical engine-room, where it keeps…
‘Rules based international order’ is dead, 20th century never coming back
For a moment last week, it appeared that European Union officials finally had realised that the 20th century was never coming back.
Europe disdained US Republicans for years, now euro-elites are in a frenzy
Statements and speeches last week from President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth have been treated as the end of the…
Haunted by the euro-ghost of Hallstein: the power to collect direct EU taxes
The European Commission finds itself in a bit of a pickle.
My principles on Ukraine, ‘and if you don’t like them, well, I have others’
After the latest Trump-Putin “pas de deux”, in the ever-evolving theatre of international politics, the diplomatic ballet by European leaders that comes next…
Angela Merkel, the gravedigger of Germany and Europe
Angela Merkel led Germany – and Europe – for sixteen years.
The centre-right across the West are being replaced by the populist-right
Nearly everywhere in the West, the centre-right is being replaced as the “mainstream” political party by the populist-right.
Trump’s plan for Gaza: a new start on an intractable problem
There have been the predictable negative reactions around Europe about President Trump's comments on Gaza, and particularly the proposal effectively to remove the…
EU not all over by any means, but the old order is remorselessly receding
The war has begun. Hungary's Viktor Orbán has nailed his theses to the door. They are simple. The bureaucrats of Brussels have destroyed Europe.
USAID in the EU: this is not development assistance, it is ideological warfare
For years, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has quietly funnelled millions into European Union countries under the pretext of promoting democracy,…
The Soviet Union erased Russia’s history as a European cultural nation
A crucial rule of successful diplomacy is that one does not have to approve of one enemy’s actions, but one does have to understand what motivates them.
Without USAID, the EU will have to pay for its own propaganda
President Donald Trump’s decision to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has left Democrats reeling and knees quaking in Brussels.
Congress and the ‘Trump supremacy’
In Western-style democracies, most new – or returning – heads of government enjoy a “political honeymoon” upon taking office.
In treating Canada as an enemy, Trump made a serious mistake
There is a message in the current tariff imbroglio between the United States and Canada, Mexico, and China that can be usefully taken on board by other countries…
US reasserting their role as the primary superpower with breathtaking speed
As I have written elsewhere, I have always been suspicious of the idea of an emerging multipolar world order.
Feminism, a triumph of biological illogic over reproductive realities
Those poor, deluded German CDU demonstrators who last week denounced their party – with their winsome SHAME ON YOU placards - for agreeing to AfD demands to cut…
Ready for an ‘abomination?’ In American history, tariffs have consequences
American tariffs? Let me tell you about those. Move President Trump’s tariffs to one side for now, we will get back to those in a moment.
Trump plays hardball on tariffs, EU plays pretend
There are few things as predictable in global politics as Brussels being caught off guard.