Yes, the far-right gained in the recent European elections, yet is riven by nationalist preoccupations. More worrying is another long-term trend. Beyond the somewhat confusing continental results of the elections to the European Parliament, a longstanding trend becomes clearer. Britain is trying to go alone on its nationalist and conservative way, mirroring the US and…

More than a church went up in flames in the Parisian fire which destroyed the interior of the cathedral Notre-Dame, though leaving the stone façade intact. The reconstruction, already decided and well-financed has symbolic value. Ken Follett called the medieval cathedrals in Europe ‘The Pillars of the Earth’. Notre-Dame de Paris, ‘Our Lady of Paris’,…

Russia, a big European power, is also an Asian power, in fact a genuinely Eurasian great power. Due to its conflict with its largest European neighbour, the Ukraine, but also overall tense relations with the EU, Russia finds itself isolated at its European front. Having realised that a greater role in a European context seems…

The upcoming fight for seats in the European Parliament will show whether authoritarian National-Populists, globally on the upswing, can extend their reign to the heart of the European Union. The 700plus members of the European Parliament (EP) are elected in each of the 28-member countries of the European Union through a system of general proportionality.…

India will soon be heading for its next general elections. Prime Minister Modi was brought into power with the general elections of May 2014. His first term, thus, comes to an end in 2019 and the country, as the world’s largest democracy, will be getting prepared to one more giant election process. Modi’s fate will…

‘Wutbuerger’, like ‘Zeitgeist’ and other Germanic expressions, has become a key word in all European languages: angry citizens, steamrolled by rapid change, often belonging to the working poor in mostly rural areas, easy seducible by political snake oil vendors and their nationalist, anti-immigrant and anti-European rants. The Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France are the…

The current headlines from Europe are dominated by Brexit. But that will pass. How Europe will create more security, both at its common border (Schengen) and in its ‘near-abroad’ (Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa) has been, is and will remain one of the EU’s top priorities. To get ‘lost in EU abbreviations’ is happening to…