Britain needs an anti-Brexit alliance
LONDON — Britain’s next prime minister is in the process of being chosen by around 160,000 Conservative Party members — a self-selecting “selectorate” that is predominantly over 55, relatively wealthy,...
View ArticleEuropean Parliament’s democracy hypocrisy
PARIS — Europe’s self-appointed guardians of democracy are in high dudgeon. Their beef: the failure by EU leaders to nominate Bavarian politician Manfred Weber or another so-called Spitzenkandidat for...
View ArticleBritain should stand by its man in DC
LONDON — It’s never comfortable having your frank assessments of foreign governments leaked in a way designed to cause the maximum embarrassment. I should know. When I was the British ambassador in...
View ArticleKilling Giulio Regeni — again
Italy’s far right appears to have found a new cause: the unsolved murder of Giulio Regeni. The death of the young Italian researcher, who was killed under murky circumstances in Egypt in 2016, sparked...
View ArticleWhat’s disappointed me in my first two weeks in Brussels
In my first two weeks as a member of the European Parliament, I’ve stumbled into a baffling realization. Next to nobody in Brussels has any clue what the European Union truly stands for — beyond a flag...
View ArticleHow feminist is von der Leyen?
“#EuropeIsAWoman” — that was the full text of one of the first tweets German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen sent out into the world after being nominated for president of the European...
View ArticleWhy Europe should give up the IMF
BERLIN — On Wednesday, European leaders are expected to make a play to keep the International Monetary Fund in European hands. When G7 finance ministers gather in France, EU countries will likely...
View ArticleWhy Martin Selmayr had to go
The departure of Martin Selmayr from the position of secretary-general of the European Commission overflows with poetic justice. With the inevitability of a Wagnerian opera (but a quicker endgame),...
View ArticleWanted: New job for Martin Selmayr
Martin Selmayr, who is leaving the post of European Commission secretary-general, has wasted no time in launching his search for a new job. POLITICO has obtained this letter of recommendation written...
View ArticleWorld’s cartoonists on this week’s events
First published in Der Spiegel, Germany, July 13, 2019 | By Chappatte First published on Caglecartoons.com, The Netherlands, July 15, 2019 | By Tom Janssen First published on POLITICO.com, U.S.,...
View ArticleThe Russian trolling Putin
MOSCOW — Crossing swords with Russia’s ruthless President Vladimir Putin is not for the lily-livered: Even imprisonment could be a blessing compared with the possibility of being poisoned by nerve...
View ArticleFlash forward to Boris Britain
20:00 — Endgame In a suite in the Wetherspoons Grand, high above the empty streets of New Arcadia, Mr. Enzensberger is trying to kill me. Moments earlier, we had been chatting amicably. Now he is...
View ArticleTime for Ukraine’s comedian president to get serious
It’s show time for superstar Ukrainian comic-turned-President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Sunday’s parliamentary election handed the political novice an overwhelming popular mandate to push through the...
View ArticleItaly receives more asylum seekers from Germany than from Libya
MILAN — Italy has a migration problem, just not the one it thinks it does. To illustrate the challenges facing the country, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini continues to point south, at people coming...
View ArticleDon’t leave climate to the environment ministers
War is too important to be left to the generals, the former French statesman Georges Clemenceau famously said. You can say something similar about climate change. If we have any hope of tackling the...
View ArticleWith LGBT community, Poland’s ruling party picks wrong fight
In Poland, the personal is becoming political. For the past four years, the conservative ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), has campaigned on a platform of victimhood and portrayed Poland as a...
View ArticleKing Macron’s unsteady EU crown
SAINT-RÉMY-DE-PROVENCE, France — Emmanuel Macron wants to be king and savior of Europe. But his vigorous pursuit of a sovereign EU defending its interests on the global stage with the United States,...
View ArticleFar-right terrorists aren’t lone wolves
The mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, was an unwelcome reminder: Ideologically driven far-right terrorism is on the rise. The attack, which left 22 people dead, came less than six months after the...
View ArticleTo fix Iran crisis, Trump must change course
PRINCETON, New Jersey — U.S. President Donald Trump has put the West on a collision course with Iran. Since he was elected to the White House in 2016, Trump has consistently pursued an ill-advised...
View ArticleTeflon Bojo’s 5 tips for surviving scandal
LONDON — The United Kingdom’s new prime minister has proved markedly resistant to scandal. Boris Johnson’s political career has chugged through multiple affairs, racist remarks, visits from the police,...
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