The adage that Europe is forged in crisis may be about to acquire a refinement. By the time a response to any given crisis is operational, which takes a while in a 27-country bloc, there is a good chance that the crisis will be more or less over.
TopEmmanuel Macron remains the strong favourite to win France’s presidency
SEVEN MONTHS ago Emmanuel Macron stood in the gardens of the Palais du Pharo in Marseille, before the sunlit backdrop of the old port, and declared: “If we can’t succeed in Marseille, we can’t make a success of France.”
TopWhy Olaf Scholz hesitates to send Ukraine heavy weapons
ON FEBRUARY 27th, three days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Olaf Scholz delivered a speech to Germany’s parliament that astonished even his close political allies.
TopFighting has intensified in the Donbas region
Now Mr Putin is throwing a large portion of his weary army at eastern Ukraine in the hope of salvaging something from his war. The coming weeks are likely to see the bloodiest battles since Russia first invaded the Donbas region in 2014.
TopProtests and politics will dominate this year’s Biennale
NO NATIONAL PAVILION in the latest Venice Biennale, which opens on April 23rd, will make such a brave and unambiguous statement as Russia’s. Its airy spaces will be empty, the curator and two artists chosen to represent Russia having withdrawn on February 28th in protest at the invasion of Ukraine.
TopGeorgians back Ukraine, but their government is more hesitant
IF ANYONE FEELS Ukrainians’ pain, it is Georgians. In 2008 Russia invaded Georgia and garrisoned the self-declared statelets of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, leaving a fifth of Georgia’s territory under de facto Russian occupation.
TopTariffs on Russian energy are a smart way to hobble Vladimir Putin
THE INDUSTRIAL outskirts of Lubmin, a town on the windswept Baltic coast of what was once East Germany, feature in no tourist guide. Nor is the port of Rotterdam, the grittiest part of a city already struggling for charm, much of an attraction.
TopThe race to be the next president of France enters the final stretch
THERE WERE 12 candidates to pick from, but in the end the French chose the same presidential fin...
TopHow Polish schools are coping with an influx of Ukrainian children
YULIA BODAR’S classroom was once the back bedroom of a large Warsaw apartment. Now it boasts a blackboard, a bright carpet decorated with cartoon animals, and desks at which a dozen small children are learning to write.
TopCan Germany cope without Russian gas
OLAF SCHOLZ reacted on March 27th with unusually harsh words to a question by Anne Will, a popular Sunday talk-show host, about studies by economists that suggest an immediate stop of imports of Russian energy would reduce German economic growth by only a modest amount.
TopIt will take years for Ukraine to become an EU member
BEING A MEMBER of the European Union is, like marriage, a binary thing: either you are or you are not. Unlike marriage, little romance is involved in getting there. Ukraine got a taste of this in 2013 when it negotiated an “association agreement” with the bloc, a deal to keep both sides sweet while they mulled a closer union. The document came in at 2,135 pages.
TopHungary’s opposition struggles to beat Viktor Orban’s stealth autocracy
THE RALLY stretched half a kilometre along the Danube, past Budapest’s Technical University where in 1956 students launched a doomed rebellion against their communist overlords. It was March 15th, the day Hungary commemorates its revolution of 1848.
TopItaly’s digitisation minister has big goals and a big budget
THE HOMELAND of Galileo and Marconi has proved unexpectedly resistant to digital technology. Many Italians adopted mobile phones while they were still a rarity in other countries, including America. Yet the share who regularly use the internet is no higher than in Turkey.
TopWeaning Europe off Russian energy will mean making changes
AT LAST, the spring. For months Europeans have lived with the threat of losing the Russian gas that keeps their homes warm. The prospect seems less daunting now that daffodils are blooming. But despite the seasonal serenity, a wrenching energy transition is under way.
TopVoters seek an alternative to Macron in blighted France
THE LAST pit in this northern French village closed in 1974, but the silhouettes of its slag heaps still rise in the distance across flat farmland. They bear witness to the muscular past of the mining basin, which a century ago employed 130,000 people.
TopThe EU’s covid-19 recovery fund has changed how Europe spends money
The adage that Europe is forged in crisis may be about to acquire a refinement. By the time a response to any given crisis is operational, which takes a while in a 27-country bloc, there is a good chance that the crisis will be more or less over.
TopEmmanuel Macron remains the strong favourite to win France’s presidency
SEVEN MONTHS ago Emmanuel Macron stood in the gardens of the Palais du Pharo in Marseille, before the sunlit backdrop of the old port, and declared: “If we can’t succeed in Marseille, we can’t make a success of France.”
TopWhy Olaf Scholz hesitates to send Ukraine heavy weapons
ON FEBRUARY 27th, three days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Olaf Scholz delivered a speech to Germany’s parliament that astonished even his close political allies.
TopFighting has intensified in the Donbas region
Now Mr Putin is throwing a large portion of his weary army at eastern Ukraine in the hope of salvaging something from his war. The coming weeks are likely to see the bloodiest battles since Russia first invaded the Donbas region in 2014.
Macron still leads a tightening presidential race
“I WANT IT to be less like a rally,” declares Emmanuel Macron in an electoral clip, as he strolls around the empty indoor arena west of Paris in an overcoat and scarf, scouting out the venue: “I want something more like a sporting event.”
TopProtests and politics will dominate this year’s Biennale
NO NATIONAL PAVILION in the latest Venice Biennale, which opens on April 23rd, will make such a brave and unambiguous statement as Russia’s. Its airy spaces will be empty, the curator and two artists chosen to represent Russia having withdrawn on February 28th in protest at the invasion of Ukraine.
TopGeorgians back Ukraine, but their government is more hesitant
IF ANYONE FEELS Ukrainians’ pain, it is Georgians. In 2008 Russia invaded Georgia and garrisoned the self-declared statelets of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, leaving a fifth of Georgia’s territory under de facto Russian occupation.
TopTariffs on Russian energy are a smart way to hobble Vladimir Putin
THE INDUSTRIAL outskirts of Lubmin, a town on the windswept Baltic coast of what was once East Germany, feature in no tourist guide. Nor is the port of Rotterdam, the grittiest part of a city already struggling for charm, much of an attraction.
TopThe race to be the next president of France enters the final stretch
THERE WERE 12 candidates to pick from, but in the end the French chose the same presidential fin...
TopHow Polish schools are coping with an influx of Ukrainian children
YULIA BODAR’S classroom was once the back bedroom of a large Warsaw apartment. Now it boasts a blackboard, a bright carpet decorated with cartoon animals, and desks at which a dozen small children are learning to write.
TopCan Germany cope without Russian gas
OLAF SCHOLZ reacted on March 27th with unusually harsh words to a question by Anne Will, a popular Sunday talk-show host, about studies by economists that suggest an immediate stop of imports of Russian energy would reduce German economic growth by only a modest amount.
TopIt will take years for Ukraine to become an EU member
BEING A MEMBER of the European Union is, like marriage, a binary thing: either you are or you are not. Unlike marriage, little romance is involved in getting there. Ukraine got a taste of this in 2013 when it negotiated an “association agreement” with the bloc, a deal to keep both sides sweet while they mulled a closer union. The document came in at 2,135 pages.
TopHungary’s opposition struggles to beat Viktor Orban’s stealth autocracy
THE RALLY stretched half a kilometre along the Danube, past Budapest’s Technical University where in 1956 students launched a doomed rebellion against their communist overlords. It was March 15th, the day Hungary commemorates its revolution of 1848.
TopItaly’s digitisation minister has big goals and a big budget
THE HOMELAND of Galileo and Marconi has proved unexpectedly resistant to digital technology. Many Italians adopted mobile phones while they were still a rarity in other countries, including America. Yet the share who regularly use the internet is no higher than in Turkey.
TopWeaning Europe off Russian energy will mean making changes
AT LAST, the spring. For months Europeans have lived with the threat of losing the Russian gas that keeps their homes warm. The prospect seems less daunting now that daffodils are blooming. But despite the seasonal serenity, a wrenching energy transition is under way.