This is Europe (Continuación)

Early result projections on a TV screen in Paris where Marine Le Pen was waiting to speak after the election on 24 April 2022. Photograph: François Mori/AP

The decisive round of the presidential race in France revealed it to be a deeply fractured country. Just as the Brexit referendum laid bare the UK’s divisions, in France we now have two electoral blocs characterised by opposing geographic and sociological profiles.

The gap between them is first of all generational, since Emmanuel Macron attracted 70% of the votes of the over-65s and 68% among 18- to 24-year-old voters. These two groups share a common trait: neither has a significant active presence in the labour market.

The pandemic, the war in Ukraine and inflationary pressures may have helped Macron to rally older people, already concerned about the threat to political stability posed by Marine Le Pen.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘In Spain, the embrace of anti-immigration policies by mainstream right parties has not stopped the ascent of Vox.’ Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox party, in Madrid in March. Photograph: Atilano Garcia/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Across Europe, radical-right parties remain on the rise. In France, Marine Le Pen is again in the runoff for the French presidency against Emmanuel Macron. This time, polls suggest a much closer race than in the 2017 election. Just over a week ago, Viktor Orbán’s populist nationalist Fidesz party won a landslide in Hungary’s parliamentary elections.

Parties of the far right not only have realistic chances of entering and leading governments in many countries, their success continues to spread across the entire continent. Even Spain and Portugal, long considered exceptional because of the absence of radical-right forces, have recently seen the emergence, respectively, of Vox and Chega.…  Seguir leyendo »

Still from This Rain Will Never Stop, directed by Alina Gorlova Photograph: The Guardian

Ukraine’s Maidan revolution of 2014, or as we call it, “the revolution of dignity”, coincided with the 11th year of a documentary film festival which takes place annually in Kyiv.

The 2014 edition of Docudays UA started just as the revolution ended, so the main visual used throughout our programming was a burning heart. Our audience of thousands had just come through a heartbreaking chapter, recently burying 100 of our fellow citizens killed on Maidan square, fighting for our country’s freedom. Our main festival venue, the Kyiv cinema house, was packed out, with an atmosphere I’ll never forget.

Today, not only are our land and people threatened, but our culture too.…  Seguir leyendo »

A boy wears Russian insignia on his hat as Bosnian Serb nationalists demonstrated in Banja Luka in support of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Photograph: Armin Durgut/AP

The recent European summit in Versailles missed a great opportunity: to launch, in a symbolic place, a new postwar order for Europe. We are not dreamers; we know that joining the European Union is no walk in the park and thatthe same procedures apply, in principle, to Ukraine as to the candidate countries in the Balkans. But there was an opportunity to establish a political union that would bridge the gap between a looser association and full membership. Instead, European leaders proceeded as if regular peacetime EU procedures are still appropriate in the extreme case of war in Europe. The freedom and peace project gave way to the EU of bureaucrats and officials.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘It was clear to me Lenka wasn’t just choosing to stay on meth because it was a comfort in a lonely and isolated life, but because it was central to it.’ Photograph: Barbora Benesov

I was researching ideas for a documentary when a friend told me about a village in a rural region of the Czech Republic. He half-joked that when people in this place visited their family, the grandma wouldn’t bake fresh cakes to serve with coffee, as is the custom, but fresh meth. Most people in the village were on meth, he said, even those with children.

I grew up in 1980s Czechoslovakia when it was still part of the Soviet bloc. As a teenager I read Memento by Radek John and Zoo Station by Christiane F, both about meth and heroin addicts.…  Seguir leyendo »

Civilians in combat training with the Kyiv Territorial Defence unit on Saturday. Photograph: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Two points about the Ukraine crisis are crystal clear. First, Vladimir Putin wishes to reimpose Russian control over Ukraine, whatever the price. His political dream of restoring the Soviet sphere of influence is echoed in a wishlist of “security guarantees” presented to western governments by Russia in December 2021. Nato, he maintains, should return to the pre-1997 state of affairs; Russia, apparently, need not.

Second, whatever Putin decides in the current crisis, there are real fears in central and eastern Europe that settled borders are now under threat. These fears are grounded in reason. What seemed unrealistic in the immediate post-cold war years is now again a real possibility.…  Seguir leyendo »

Frankfurt’s financial district. ‘Financial job openings have moved from London to continental Europe, and some firms have relocated.’ Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

Two years after Brexit formally took effect on 31 January 2020, and a year since the UK’s exit from the single market and customs union, we can attempt a provisional economic stocktake for both sides.

Nearly 52% of UK voters supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum. Nearly 100% of citizens elsewhere in the bloc were shocked by the result, and the first concern was that Brexit could mark the unravelling of the whole European project. That did not happen: indeed, quite the opposite. Even in the most Eurosceptic countries there was an increase in support for the European Union, a sort of closing of the ranks.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘Being a European Muslim has never been a walk in the park.’ Muslim worshippers in Rennes, France, April 2021. Photograph: Jean-François Monier/AFP/Getty Images

France has taken over the rotating EU presidency for the next six months, an opportunity the president, Emmanuel Macron, will no doubt use to nudge Europe towards his goal of greater “strategic autonomy” in the world. Some in Brussels worry that hotly contested presidential elections in April could interfere with France’s EU presidency before a key conference on the future of Europe delivers any results. It’s not reassuring that Macron’s decision, temporarily, to fly the blue and gold EU flag at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris has already drawn the fury of far-right and conservative election candidates.

But many European Muslims are concerned about the French stint in the EU chair for another reason: they fear that France’s divisive anti-Muslim political discourse will seep dangerously into EU policymaking.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘Angela Merkel displayed a seismologist’s sensitivity to undercurrents and aftershocks in the public sphere.’ Photograph: John Thys/EPA

March 2020: an insidious virus seeds itself across the globe pitching tens of thousands in the European continent into a life-and-death battle. Most European countries secure their borders; millions of households lock their front doors. Hellish scenes flash by, feeding fears of infection. In Europe a disaster is unfolding, but there is no joint response.

The loudest cry comes from Italy, hit by the virus early on. Appeals for help go unanswered and bitter reproaches ensue. The EU is slow to react: the fact that Brussels’ institutions lack the “competences”, or formal powers, to act in the field of public health impresses no one.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘The ongoing digital transition made the need to legislate remote working necessary. The pandemic has made it urgent.’ Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

This week the Portuguese parliament attracted headlines around the world, and even some attention from The Daily Show, after we banned bosses from contacting their employees outside of working hours. Under the new laws, employers will now face sanctions if they text message, phone or email their workers when they are off the clock.

For us, this is as an essential move to strengthen the boundaries needed for a good work-life balance. There should be a boundary between the time when an employer’s authority prevails, and the time when the worker’s autonomy should prevail. There should be a boundary between the time in which a worker is a resource in the service of the person paying their salary, and the time in which they should be the owner of a life that is not all about work.…  Seguir leyendo »

A Million Moments for Democracy Association protest in Prague in April. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The past decade has been a bruising one for the health of European democracy. The dramatic authoritarian turns in Hungary and Poland have attracted most attention, but nearly all European governments have chipped away at civil liberties, judicial independence and civil society.

With Covid accentuating many of the challenges posed by populism, disinformation and a collapse in public trust, the narrative of democracy labouring in deep crisis is now well established. Yet as the threats have mounted, so have efforts to defend and rethink Europe’s democratic practices.

Most spontaneously, there has been an increase in the frequency and intensity of mass protests, even during the pandemic, many in support of democratic values.…  Seguir leyendo »

A gilets jaunes protest in Paris in December 2018, over planned fuel price rises resulting from a carbon tax. Photograph: Valéry Hache/AFP/Getty Images

As a climate policy researcher, I am often asked: what is the biggest obstacle to decarbonisation? My answer has changed profoundly over the last couple of years. I used to point to the lack of affordable green technologies and an absence of political will. Today, I point to something else. Something less tangible, but possibly more challenging: the absence of a green social contract.

The green revolution is already unfolding, driven by a stunning reduction in the cost of green technologies and by a global momentum for climate neutrality by the mid-century. So, if cheaper green technology and an unprecedented political green ambition are rapidly converging, what could go wrong?…  Seguir leyendo »

Thierry Baudet at an anti-lockdown protest in Breda, Netherlands on 2 March 2021. Photograph: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

On 20 March 2019, Thierry Baudet provided Dutch television viewers with two surprises. The first was news of his landslide victory in that day’s senate elections. Baudet’s far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD) was a newcomer in parliament, holding just two seats out of 150 in the lower house. But that day, from scratch, Forum gained 12 of the senate’s 75 seats, putting it on a par with the governing liberal party (the VVD) led by prime minister Mark Rutte.

The second surprise was Baudet’s victory speech. “The owl of Athena spreads her wings as evening falls”, he started, and across the country, jaws dropped and drinks were spilled.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘Mario Draghi He is a member of no party but his cabinet includes a staggering number of politicians and political shades.’ Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AP

“Would it not be simpler for the government to dissolve the people and elect another?” Bertolt Brecht’s line is often quoted after dubious upsets in the democratic process – such as the imposition of Mario Monti’s austerity administration in Italy in 2011, or the crushing of Syriza’s aspirations in Greece in 2015. And yet, Mario Draghi’s top-down appointment as Italy’s new prime minister tells a different story, one that doubles as a cautionary tale for the rest of Europe.

A recent survey shows that 85% of Italians approve of the former European Central Bank chief and establishment prodigy running the government following the collapse of Giuseppe Conte’s administration.…  Seguir leyendo »

An installation dedicated to doctors struggling with Covid-19 in Chisinau, Moldova, November 2020. Photograph: Valery Sharifulin/TASS

“I am happy to work on the frontline and to see the Canadian medical system function so well”, Alecu Mătrăgună wrote in a Facebook post, “but I am sad that I was vaccinated before my mother, who works in the medical system in Moldova”. Mătrăgună is a Moldovan sonographer living in Montreal. His mother is 61 and a paediatrician with more than 30 years’ service under her belt. Yet, he told me, she has no idea when the Covid-19 vaccine might become available for her and for more than 53,300 other healthcare staff in Europe’s poorest country.

I had a similar reaction to Mătrăgună’s about my family in Moldova when I saw a sign at my local London pharmacy as long ago as early December, announcing that the vaccine was on its way.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘It is not an exaggeration to say that democracy is under threat in Poland and Hungary.’ A man protesting in Hungary as Viktor Orbán and Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki meet. Photograph: Czarek Sokołowski/AP

As European leaders gather in Brussels this week municipal buildings and monuments in Warsaw and Budapest have been lit up in blue. The illuminations, organised by campaign groups and the mayors of these cities, are meant as a powerful reminder of the dark path ahead if the EU stands aside while the rule of law is extinguished in Poland and Hungary. The lights are a call for solidarity with the millions of citizens of both countries who argue that EU funding should be conditional on their governments upholding these fundamental rights.

The release of €1.8tn in EU funds for rebuilding after the pandemic and the EU’s 2021-2027 budget is at stake.…  Seguir leyendo »

Özlem Türeci, one of the German scientists behind the Covid vaccine breakthrough, is the child of Turkish migrants. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Terror attacks in France and Austria have put Europe’s 25 million Muslims back in the spotlight. The unwanted attention is familiar. Discussing Muslims as a security risk invariably reaches fever pitch after an Islamist-inspired terrorist act. This time the attackers came from Chechnya, Tunisia and one had roots in North Macedonia. But never mind: anxiety over the Muslim “enemy within” goes deep.

Anxious debates on the place of Islam in Europe and claims that European Muslims are footsoldiers in an existential confrontation between Europe and Islam and represent an impossible-to-integrate “other” have dogged Muslims across the continent for decades.

There is a dangerous new shrillness to the conversation this time, however.…  Seguir leyendo »

Jobseekers queue outside a state employment centre in Madrid. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A decade ago, the global financial crisis left deep scars in terms of destroyed opportunities and unemployment for young people. In Europe in particular, youth unemployment persisted. Now the Covid-19 crisis threatens to do the same thing to the under-25s. Yet, none of the leaders of France, Italy or Spain, nor the president of the European commission, prioritised youth unemployment in their latest policy speeches. At the highest political level, the focus must be on averting the risk of a lost generation. Bold policies will be needed.

During the financial crisis, the US youth unemployment rate increased from about 10% to 19%, while in the European Union it increased from 16% to 26%.…  Seguir leyendo »

Mounted police patrol guard the Grand Mosque in Paris during prayers last Friday. Photograph: Kiran Ridley/Getty Images

As a dual citizen of France and Canada, I never cease to be amazed by the depth of misunderstanding there is about French attitudes to religion. France’s shortcomings in its management of diversity are obvious – as are everyone else’s – but it is important to recognise some basic facts before pronouncing on them.

The first is that the principle of laïcité in France – the country’s particular brand of secularism – is more than posturing: it is a lived, sociological fact.

The extent of secularism in France, especially over the last half century, is well documented. Jérôme Fourquet, in The French Archipelago, provides 350 pages of evidence on the transformation of France – or, as he puts it, the disappearance of the religious in France.…  Seguir leyendo »

Refugees and migrants flee fire at the Moria camp on Lesbos in September. Successive fires made 12,000 inhabitants homeless (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) Photograph: Petros Giannakouris/AP

Fortress Europe is being redesigned – but it is no easy task. European Union home affairs ministers on Thursday began the process of repairing the bloc’s broken migration policy, just weeks after the tragic devastation of the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos. Expect no quick changes, however. The 27 countries are deeply divided over proposals for a new “pact” on asylum and migration.

The European commission’s plan calls for faster pre-entry screening and quick returns of those who fail to quality for asylum. The focus is on ending sometimes deliberately slow, inhumane and inefficient border management procedures, which lead to squalid, overcrowded camps such as Moria, where people can be left in limbo for years.…  Seguir leyendo »