Niall Ferguson says Europe is becoming ‘the meltdown pot’ as a steadily increasing stream of immigrants breaks down political unity between EU member states and pushes voters back to national boundaries. Matteo Salvini speaks during an anti-immigration protest in October 2014 in Milan. Long-simmering tensions over the influx of migrants from outside Europe have come…
Niall Ferguson says Europe is becoming ‘the meltdown pot’ as a steadily increasing stream of immigrants breaks down political unity between EU member states and pushes voters back to national boundaries. Matteo Salvini speaks during an anti-immigration protest in October 2014 in Milan. Long-simmering tensions over the influx of migrants from outside Europe have come…
Is Europe starting to close its doors to foreign competitors? Recent calls to establish “European Champions” in the wake of the U.S.-led trade wars and an attempt to invigorate flagging economies suggest that Europe is starting to pull up the drawbridge of Fortress Europe. Increasing populism throughout the EU, especially in core economic leaders such as…
This weekend’s regional election in Germany will provide further proof of a fragmenting political landscape, writes Slawomir Sierakowski. The German Social Democrats’ (SPD) existential crisis can no longer be treated as a typical party crisis. The party captured a mere 9.7% of the vote in regional elections in Bavaria this month, and it is trailing the…
Chancellor caution in response to Emmanuel Macron’s desire for radical leap forward German chancellor Angela Merkel talks to German national soccer players at Eppan, Italy. Photograph: Guido Bergmann/EPA After 13 years in power there is little that chancellor Angela Merkel has yet to do. Yet Wednesday marks a premiere for the German leader: the first-ever…
As she begins her fourth and final term as Germany’s chancellor, her party remains Germany’s strongest, and she is more popular than the party. Germany’s economy will continue to expand. Unfortunately, Europe and the world need more leadership than a frustrated and erratic Donald Trump and a beleaguered Angela Merkel can provide. An asylum seeker…
Few people outside Germany are familiar with the caricature that many Germans hold of themselves in their minds. Far from the aggressive bully of 20th-century war propaganda, the perfectionist engineer of Madison Avenue car advertisements or the rule-following know-it-all of the silver screen, the German many picture today is a sleepy-headed character clad in a…