Europe

Michael Simmons

Record Channel crossings expose Starmer’s failure to ‘smash the gangs’

More migrants have illegally crossed the English Channel since 1 January than in any previous year for this period. So far in 2025, 1,344 migrants were detected crossing the Channel in small boats between 1 January and 4 February, beating the previous record of 1,339 in 2022. The figures published by Border Force – and tracked daily by The Spectator’s data hub – put paid to Keir Starmer’s promise to ‘smash the gangs’. A key part of Labour’s manifesto – and one of Starmer’s ‘first steps’ – was to ‘create a fair system and stop the small boat crossings’. Since Starmer took office last July, there have been 24,586 migrant crossings. The news comes despite

Starmer may come to regret his EU defence pact

Sir Keir Starmer has been on another overseas visit. On his 18th trip in seven months as prime minister, he travelled to Brussels yesterday to talk to European Union leaders about defence and security, an area on which he is keen to expand cooperation. His mission was both practical and symbolic: he is pursuing a defence agreement with the EU, but he is also desperate to show that he has ‘reset’ the United Kingdom’s relationship with Europe and has been welcomed into the club by the leaders of the 27 member states. As well as EU leaders, including the new president of the European Council, António Costa, Starmer met Mark

Katja Hoyer

Why can’t Germany kick its addiction to Russian energy?

Despite imposing economic sanctions on Russia, the European Union has been importing record amounts of liquefied natural gas (LNG), a report has found. Russian LNG is exempted from the EU’s sanctions. A German state-controlled energy company appears to play a major role in this circumvention of sanctions. It’s not the only indicator that Germany is more reluctant to break its old ties with Russia than it lets on. The clamour for resuming economic ties with Russia comes from many different corners According to data collated by the commodities intelligence firm Kpler and first reported on by the news outlet Politico, the EU imported 837,300 metric tons of Russian LNG in the

Germany’s crumbling far-right firewall could turbocharge the AfD

Friedrich Merz, chancellor candidate of Germany’s Christian Democrats, stumbled in his bid to end Social Democrat-Greens domination of migration policy. After winning a Bundestag motion to reinstate border controls with votes of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the chamber rejected a law on to clamp down on migration. Merz’s use of the AfD drew the ire of ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel, his predecessor as CDU leader. Her stunning public stand against Merz may have convinced 12 members of his own bloc to vote against the law. The bill was defeated on Friday with 350 members voting ‘no’ and 338 in favour. The icy enmity between Merkel and Merz is legendary

Gavin Mortimer

How many more knife attacks can France take?

Each day in France there are 120 knife attacks. On Saturday, one such incident resulted in the death of 14-year-old Elias as he left his football training in central Paris. He was stabbed after refusing to surrender his mobile phone. A 17-year-old has admitted the killing to police. France’s Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, expressed his horror at the death of Elias, and reiterated his determination to make France ‘a country where parents no longer have to fear seeing their child murdered for nothing’. He added that it ‘will be a long and difficult road’ and will require an end to the culture of excuses which ‘has plunged some of our

Lisa Haseldine

Friedrich Merz turns up the heat on Germany’s migration debate

Last night, Friedrich Merz, leader of the opposition and the man most likely to become the Germany’s next chancellor, came one step closer to ending freedom of movement into the country. In a tense vote in the Bundestag, Merz and his conservative CDU party managed to pass a motion designed force the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz to tackle illegal migration head on by just three votes. Controversially, they were only able to win it with the help of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. Merz’s motion was a political gamble. Designed to drive a wedge between his party and the centre-left SPD and Green parties in particular, Merz’s

Is Europe about to switch Nord Stream back on?

Could Gazprom’s Nord Stream undersea gas pipelines, partially destroyed by saboteurs in September 2022, eventually be reopened? This week, Denmark’s energy agency authorised Nord Stream 2 AG – the Russian-owned company that operates the pipelines – to begin work capping the severed ends of the three destroyed pipelines. That will be the first step to restoring the link that before Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine used to supply up to a 40 per cent of Germany’s gas.   The move comes just days after Alice Weidel, leader of Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland party or AfD, told a party conference in Riesa that ‘we will put Nord Stream back into operation, you can

Gavin Mortimer

Like the Louvre, Macron’s presidency is falling apart

Emmanuel Macron has promised to return the Louvre to its former glory in an ambitious renovation project that is forecast to cost between €700 and €800 million (£586 and £670 million). The French president outlined details of what he called his ‘New Renaissance’ project on Tuesday as he stood in front of the Mona Lisa. As part of the revamp, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece will have its own room and visitors will pay for the privilege of seeing the enigmatic smile. Other initiatives include a second entrance – to ease the current congestion of 30,000 visitors a day – and a new entrance fee from next January that will require

Gavin Mortimer

Europe has no idea how to stop the spread of Islamism

Last week was surely one of the grimmest in Europe in years. The day after an Afghan migrant allegedly stabbed a two-year-old boy in Germany to death, Axel Rudakubana was sentenced to 52 years in prison for murdering Alice, Bebe and Elsie, three little English girls with a combined age of 22, in Southport. The court heard that Rudakubana told police in the immediate aftermath of the killing: ‘It’s a good thing those children are dead…I’m so glad…so happy’. What we didn’t hear enough about was the exact nature of his extremism. We know that an Al-Qaeda training manual was found in his bedroom, and that he was referred to

Lisa Haseldine

Elon Musk addresses AfD rally

With four weeks to go until Germany heads to the polls for its federal election, Elon Musk has just given his third public endorsement of the country’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. Beaming into the hall live from the States at the party’s campaign launch in Halle (Saale), Saxony-Anhalt, the tech billionaire appeared to loud whoops and cheers from the crowd. Referencing Germany’s Nazi past, he declared that there is ‘too much of a focus on past guilt and we should move beyond that.’ Musk started by stating he was ‘very excited’ for the party and repeated his belief that the party is ‘the best hope’ for Germany. Praising

Germany is running out of time to reform

Germany’s government after the election on 23 February will likely be led by pro-business Christian Democrat Friedrich Merz. His coalition partner, probably the Social Democrats of failed Chancellor Olaf Scholz, or else the Greens of economy minister Robert Habeck, will torpedo any serious economic reforms. Equally worrying: Merz’s own reform blueprint is far too timid. A new wild card in the vote – up to now dominated by the economy – is spiralling migrant violence and failures of German authorities to lock up people known to pose acute threats. A horrifying knife attack on a nursery school group in a park in Aschaffenburg, in Bavaria, on Wednesday, allegedly by an Afghan

The EU’s decarbonisation plan can’t survive Donald Trump

As in a more delirious version of Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office, again. In a thinly-veiled attempt to mend Beijing’s relations with Europe, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman commented: “Climate change is a common challenge facing all of humanity. No country can stay out of it, and no country can be immune to it.” Whatever their views on climate change, Europeans and British would do well to realise that decades-long effort to reduce emissions through multilateral deals is over. Continuing on one’s own – after America’s explicit repudiation of the COP framework, and in light of the track record

Lionel Shriver

Immigration’s theatre of the absurd

On the cusp of an almighty row over Trump’s planned mass deportations, let’s look to Europe for light relief. Last month, the pridefully left-wing management of the storied 19th-century Parisian theatre Gaité Lyrique, owned by the pridefully left-wing Paris council and traditionally the home of operettas, digital arts and musical performances, staged a free conference on ‘reinventing the refugee welcome in France’. The organisers literally invited their own downfall: 200 West African migrants who apparently felt very welcome indeed and refused to leave. Gaité Lyrique invited its own downfall: 200 West African migrants who refused to leave These passionate opera fans have since swelled to 350. The pridefully left-wing management

Trump is coming for Europe on defence

Hundreds of millions of Americans will have a new president tomorrow. Depending on where you land on America’s increasingly hyper-partisan political spectrum, 20 January will either be a day of dread or joy, a return to the good old times or a step back into rough, unpredictable waters.  The same could be said for policymakers across the Atlantic Ocean. Most of Europe’s political heavyweights, the majority of whom are still content to live in the 1990s as if the geopolitical changes of the last two decades didn’t occur, are dreading Trump’s return. Fresh off another victory, Trump and his administration want to see clear, unambiguous action It doesn’t take a

Spain’s expat tax won’t last long

‘There are only two families in the world, as a grandmother of mine used to say: the haves and the have-nots.’ Sancho Panza’s line in Cervantes’ famous novel was echoed by socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday when he worried that Spanish society was rapidly dividing into two classes: ‘Those who inherit properties from their parents and those who have to spend their lives working to pay the rent.’ Spain certainly has a severe housing crisis. Although the fertility rate of 1.3 children per woman is far below the 2.1 needed to maintain population, mass immigration means that every year the country needs to find homes for over half

Lisa Haseldine

AfD on track to turn a third of Germany blue

With less than six weeks to go until voters head to the polls, the snap federal election campaign in Germany is finally heating up. The AfD is set to turn a third of Germany blue and clinch five of the country’s 16 states in the party list vote: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony. This should award the party approximately 19.7 per cent of the vote – translating to 146 seats in the Bundestag. These projected results banish any notion that Germany has moved on from its bisected past Just in time for the weekend, the pollsters YouGov have released their first MRP survey, revealing the likely voting intention of

Will the AfD’s deportation pledge win over German voters?

Next month’s German federal election on 23 February revolves around the disputed meaning of a single toxic word: ‘remigration’. Until the current fiercely fought campaign began, the word was an unmentionable taboo in German politics for obvious historical reasons, since, according to left-wing linguists, it suggested comparison between the deadly forced deportation of Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust with the way that unwelcome immigrants are treated in today’s Germany. But at the weekend that taboo was shattered by Alice Weidel, co-leader of the hard right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, when she used the ‘verboten’ word while launching the insurgent party’s election campaign in its East German heartland. Weidel

Gavin Mortimer

Spain is stoking Europe’s migrant crisis

The new year in Spain began much as the old one ended, with a huge influx of illegal immigrants arriving on its shores. Nearly 800 people from North and Sub-Saharan Africa landed on the Canary Islands between 6 and 8 January. That fleet of ten boats are an ominous sign of what Europe can expect in 2025. Spain has become the people smugglers’ route of choice: last year they ferried 63,970 migrants into Spanish territory, an increase of 12.5 per cent on 2023. Of that number, more than 43,000 men, women and children landed in the Canaries. Spain is seen by the people smugglers as the softest of touches The

Why the French state fears Elon Musk

The French government on Wednesday declared war on X and on Elon Musk, directly threatening to ban the platform. Speaking on France Inter, Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s Foreign Minister, accused Musk of allowing X to become a platform for interference undermining European ‘public discourse’. Barrot demanded that the European Commission act with ‘the utmost firmness’. He has repeatedly complained to Brussels and said that if the EU fails to act, potentially by banning X outright, France may demand the power to protect itself. ‘The debate on public platforms,’ he declared, ‘cannot be outsourced to unregulated social networks controlled by billionaires.’ Make no mistake – this isn’t about interference or democracy. It’s

Why I’m voting for the AfD

On 23 February, I will vote for the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party in the German general election. As someone with an immigrant parent, a postgraduate degree, and who works in the liberal world of film and TV, this is the last thing I’m supposed to admit to in public. My fellow Germans might understand my not wanting to vote for the Social Democratic party (SPD), the left-wingers who lead our deeply unpopular coalition government. But as an ‘educated’ millennial, surely I ought to vote Green? After all, our shamelessly non-neutral public broadcasters ARD and ZDF acclaim them the ‘party of youth’. They’ve consistently opposed mass immigration and Germany’s absurdly