Europe

Is German chancellor Olaf Scholz giving in to pressure to reduce support for Ukraine and improve relations with Russia? Scholz declared during a televised interview with the German network ZDF broadcast last night that any fresh peace talks to bring an end to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine should also include Russia.  ‘I believe that now is the time to discuss how we can arrive at a peaceful resolution from this war, at a faster pace than currently appears to be the case,’ Scholz said. ‘The [Ukrainian] president and I are in agreement that any talks should include Russia.’ Securing Russia’s attendance at future peace negotiations is, of course, another

‘We came as adversaries, we stayed as allies, and we leave as friends,’ British prime minister John Major told crowds in Berlin on 8 September 1994, thirty years ago today. The last 200 British, American and French soldiers withdrew from Berlin that day, leaving the city without a foreign military presence for the first time since the Second World War. This was supposed to be the end of history. In reality, a new chapter had already begun. The presence of the Western Allies in post-war Germany is still remembered fondly today. There are events marking the 30th anniversary of their departure, and many traces of their occupation remain. Take the

Robert Jenrick appears on course to become leader of the Conservative party within a year of resigning from ministerial office in Rishi Sunak’s administration. That is a telling indicator of how far the Conservative regimes of the last parliament had strayed from the gut instincts of the Tory tribe. Jenrick has been focused on victory for many months The Newark MP is far from home and hosed in the contest and may yet be defeated by the force of Kemi Badenoch’s political personality, or the sheer ‘nice guy’ campaigning warmth of James Cleverly. But the bookies now make him clear favourite to become Leader of the Opposition on 2 November

Michel Barnier, the OAP appointed yesterday as Prime Minister of France, is a sensible fellow, even if at 73 he should be putting up his feet after decades in the political trenches. And he has plenty of pensions to draw on. He’s not exciting. Scandal free, socially conservative, a master of dossiers – not intrigue, he’s not even a graduate of the École National d’Administration, the finishing school of the French elite. He’s a former choir boy and Scout who seems never to have made a memorable speech in his long career. He’s rather boring, and normal. His two memorable achievements seem to have been as the EU’s Brexit negotiator, in

Michel Barnier is the new prime minister of France. Best known in Britain as the EU’s chief negotiator during the Brexit negotiations, the 73-year-old is the oldest premier in the history of the Fifth Republic and he was unveiled sixty days after the parliamentary elections that threw the Republic into chaos. Le Pen appears satisfied with the choice of Barnier In a statement issued from the Élysée, president Emmanuel Macron said he believed he had found the person to lead a government that ‘meets the conditions to be as stable as possible and give themselves the chances to gather the widest possible support’. The appointment brings to an end a shambolic summer

Who will be the next prime minister of France? Almost two months after the centre lost its majority in the National Assembly, the potential candidates range from the improbable to the ludicrous.   The latest semi-crazed idea is that Emmanuel Macron should call on Ségolene Royal, the former wife of François Hollande, a socialist party machine politician hated in equal measure by both the extreme left and populist right and who generates no enthusiasm from either the moderate Republicans or the residue of the president’s centre.  Admittedly, this idea is floated by Royal herself and has been met with general derision. Or perhaps Bernard Cazeneuve, a moderate socialist who was Hollande’s

The EU’s three largest economies are stuck in a deep structural slump. The budget is a mess, with money running out. And the bloc is rapidly losing competitiveness. Meanwhile, populist parties committed to overthrowing the organisation are coming closer to power all the time. You might think that the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had enough serious problems to deal with it. Yet somehow she is finding time for something else: aiming for gender parity. There’s just one problem: jobs for the girls won’t rescue the EU. It is hard to see how carving out lucrative jobs for a handful of women is going to fix

‘We are the party of the youth!’ When the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party launched its state election campaign over the summer in the former east Germany, its lead candidate for Brandenburg Christoph Berndt confidently declared that the party would do well thanks to the legions of young voters it had seduced. Today, as the dust settles on the results of Thuringia and Saxony’s state elections, it appears that Berndt’s predictions have come to pass. According to data published by the pollsters Infratest Dimap, 38 per cent of those aged between 18 and 24 voted for the AfD in Thuringia on Sunday. In neighbouring Saxony, 31 per cent did the