Don’t help Boris Johnson put lipstick on his Brexit pig
LONDON — European Union leaders must not help Boris Johnson push a Brexit deal through the British parliament if they are able to reach an agreement with the U.K. prime minister later this week. Doing...
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Michel Barnier’s new job
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson isn’t the only European leader who should be smiling about the new Brexit deal between the U.K. and the EU. For French President Emmanuel Macron, the end of more...
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Greece’s half-miracle
ATHENS — A little-noticed semi-miracle has occurred in Greece. After a devastating decade of depression and three wrenching austerity programs, the ancestral home of European democracy has emerged with...
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Andorra’s abortion rights revolution
ENCAMP, Andorra — There were no demonstrations in Andorra, until feminist campaigners took to the streets. For decades, the mountaintop microstate was synonymous with winter sports and tax-free...
View ArticleDefend Poland’s civil society, not its ruling party
In the opinion piece “In defense of Poland’s ruling party” (October 9), Agnieszka Kołakowska, a Polish writer and translator based in Paris, paints a rather idyllic picture of Law and Justice (PiS),...
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Donald Trump’s failed war on terror
After the killing of the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, U.S. President Donald Trump once again claimed that keeping America safe from terrorism is one of his biggest achievements. But his record is...
View ArticleDéjà vu in the UK: As a Turkish exile, I’ve seen this story before
LONDON — I moved to London from Istanbul over a decade ago. As a novelist put on trial in Turkey for writing fiction, I longed for freedom of speech, and wanted to live in a place with a strong liberal...
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Politics, not policy will help Lagarde save the eurozone
When Christine Lagarde was tapped to become the next chief of the European Central Bank, her detractors were quick to argue her appointment was a mistake. Though she has had a distinguished career as...
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Why UK election outcome is impossible to predict
LONDON — Boris Johnson, on a mission to “get Brexit done,” has given the U.K. its first December election since 1923. On the face of it, the outcome of the vote looks set to relieve the U.K. from the...
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Time for a Balkan reboot
GRAZ, Austria — French President Emmanuel Macron’s non to starting accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia has killed a key EU strategy for transforming the region. Not only has membership of...
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A very American epidemic
Illustration by Marcus Marritt for POLITICO LAS VEGAS, Nevada as Vegas is one of those cities where you can have it all. On the two-year anniversary of America’s deadliest-ever mass shooting — when a...
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A stronger Europe to face down Trump? Don’t count on it
HAMBURG — Few things are as scary to European governments as the prospect of another Donald Trump victory in 2020. In less than three years, he has already taken a wrecking ball to transatlantic...
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The night Berlin became Berlin again
I still remember the smell of East Berlin. It struck me immediately, when I first visited as a journalist for the Belgian newspaper De Standaard in December 1984: the dull sulfur smell of brown coal....
View Article30 years after Wall’s fall, Europe’s new divisions
Thirty years ago, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down — and with it vanished the dividing line that had separated Germany and Europe for several decades. The process of reunification that...
View ArticleHow to get eurozone out of its slump
After several years of expansion and job creation, eurozone economic growth has shifted into a lower gear. Global trade conflicts, slowing growth in China and uncertainty over Brexit have all hurt...
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Macron’s Islamophobic undercurrent
What exactly is driving French President Emmanuel Macron’s foreign policy? He says he wants a more geopolitical Europe, capable of facing up to an increasingly dangerous world. But then it is hard to...
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Britain’s new left-behinds: The moderates
LONDON — When the House of Commons returns after the strange December election, Britain will be a very different place. No matter the outcome, one thing is already certain: The country’s political...
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The crisis in Syria is on Europe’s hands
WASHINGTON — When U.S. President Donald Trump said last month he would withdraw 1,000 U.S. special forces from northeast Syria, Europe was up in arms. European governments denounced the ensuing Turkish...
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Italy’s missing feminists
ROME — Depending on how you look at it, Italy’s feminist movement is either invisible or having a moment. Italian politics is famously a boy’s club. Women make up only 35 percent of all members of...
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Sardines put the squeeze on Salvini
Giulia Blasi is a writer and activist based in Rome, and the author of the feminist primer “Manuale per ragazze rivoluzionarie” (Rizzoli, 2018). ROME — It all began with 15,000 people packed tightly...
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