Europe

Germany has become a useful ally for Britain

Yesterday the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited London for the first time since he took office in May. He and the prime minister have met on a number of occasions, and although the two lawyers are different characters – Sir Keir Starmer, the stiff, soi disant progressive human rights barrister; Merz, the abrasive, hard-nosed corporate counsel – they have forged a functional relationship. But this was Merz on Starmer’s home ground. The government has put a great deal of effort into bespoke bilateral relationships. Defence secretary John Healey and the German defence minister Boris Pistorius signed the Trinity House Agreement last October, and there have also been various kinds of

Friedrich Merz is coming to Britain to forget his troubles at home

Friedrich Merz has managed something truly remarkable: he’s simultaneously the most internationally successful German chancellor in decades and quite possibly the most domestically incompetent. While foreign leaders sing his praises and credit him with everything from Ukraine’s weapons supply to Nato’s renewed backbone, German conservatives are discovering they’ve elected a man who can charm Trump but can’t outwit a Social Democratic Party that barely scraped 16 per cent of the vote. The damage extends far beyond one failed nomination The man who promised to clean up the catastrophic legacies of both his predecessors, Scholz and Merkel, has indeed delivered on the international front. In London today, Merz will sign the

Gavin Mortimer

Bayrou will regret his plan to scrap French bank holidays

The Prime Minister of France announced his plan on Tuesday to balance the country’s books: his most eye-catching intention is to scrap two public holidays. In addressing the nation, Francois Bayrou warned that France’s out-of-control public spending has left the country in ‘mortal danger’. It was imperative to reduce the public deficit by 43.8 billion euros by 2026, explained Bayrou. ‘It’s the last stop before the cliff, before we are crushed by the debt. It’s late, but there is still time.’ The holidays Bayrou wants to jettison are Easter Monday and 8 May (VE Day), two of the eleven annual public holidays in France. Britain has eight. Bayrou has taken

Cutting bank holidays for French workers is a bad idea

Banning the baguette, perhaps? Or making it compulsory to eat a sandwich at your desk at lunchtime? If you think hard enough, it is possible to imagine reform that would create more anger in France. Even so, prime minister Francois Bayrou’s plan to scrap two public holidays is right up there. Bayrou wants to reduce France’s 11 public holidays in a bid to kick-start France’s economy. Bayrou said Easter Monday had ‘no religious significance’, and the whole nation had to work and produce more. He said that bank holidays had turned the month of May into a gruyère – a Swiss cheese full of holes. He said that bank holidays had turned

Gavin Mortimer

France doesn’t need Boomers dreaming of political comebacks

If France didn’t have enough to worry about right now with its soaring rates of debt, crime and immigration, now comes news of a political comeback. Dominique de Villepin, prime minister between 2005 and 2007, earlier this month launched his political party called Humanist France. ‘I decided to create a movement of ideas, of citizens, through the creation of a political party,’ he explained. ‘This movement is for everyone. We need to unite all French people to defend social justice and the republican order,’ he said. Given some of his recent statements about Israel, de Villepin will have his work cut out to unite the country. In October, the Jewish

John Keiger

How Macron triumphed over Starmer

‘Small boats’ are the big talking point from this week’s Franco-British summit. The consensus is that there are slim pickings for Britain, and the reason why is simple: France negotiates according to its interests, Britain negotiates according to the Chagos template. France’s president Emmanuel Macron had little incentive to agree anything but a symbolic ‘returns’ agreement with Sir Keir Starmer. Most of the French political class, public opinion and ‘humanitarian’ organisations do not support Britain returning migrants to France. Nor for that matter do other EU states. Why would they? What then was Macron seeking from the summit? The French president is still smarting from Brexit The French president is

Gavin Mortimer

Starmer and Macron won’t fix the Channel migrant crisis

There was a sense of déjà vu to today’s announcement by Keir Starmer that he intends to ‘secure’ Britain’s borders. Standing alongside Emmanuel Macron, the Prime Minister pledged ‘hard-headed aggressive action on all fronts’ to crack the migrant crisis but warned that there is ‘no silver bullet’. The sceptic might argue that the real problem in cracking the migrant crisis isn’t the criminal gangs but the human rights industry Rishi Sunak deployed the same phrase in March 2023 when, as Premier, he stood alongside the French president, and promised to take back control of Britain’s borders. He failed, and few have faith in this new ‘one-in one-out’ scheme. ‘Migrants arriving

France can’t solve Britain’s reliance on America and China

When President Emmanuel Macron of France addressed the British parliament this week, he emphasised the need for both countries to reduce the risk from their ‘excessive dependencies on both the US and China’. This reliance on the Great Powers, Macron suggested, was a threat for Europe to be able ‘to invest in key technologies of the future’ and ‘avoid strategic dependencies and disengagement that would put us at risk of a slow death’. In many ways President Macron is right. The UK and Europe are absolutely dependent on America and China for critical technologies and industrial inputs. As noted by the EU in various recent reports, China dominates in rare

Gavin Mortimer

Can Ursula von der Leyen survive ‘Pfizergate’?

Ursula von der Leyen faces the biggest test of her European Commission leadership as MEPs gather to vote on a motion of no-confidence. Today’s vote, the first of its kind in 11 years, has been brought by right-wing MEPs in relation to von der Leyen’s secretive negotiations with a pharmaceuticals boss during the pandemic. But while the European Commission president has tried to spin the no-confidence motion in her as ‘fuelled by conspiracy theorists’ – and seems set to win the vote – make no mistake: her leadership is badly damaged by this debacle, perhaps irreparably so. Economically, militarily and diplomatically, the bloc is floundering The chief complaint against von der Leyen

The man who’s destroying Spain

Madrid In the mid-1990s, Spain’s socialist prime minister Felipe Gonzalez saw his political career collapse under the weight of a corruption scandal. A Supreme Court investigation revealed a fraudulent contracting scheme that illegally funded the Socialist party’s (PSOE) election campaigns. Despite intense media pressure from government-aligned outlets, two brave judges upheld the rule of law. Three decades later, another socialist Prime Minister – Pedro Sanchez – faces a similar reckoning. But this time, the scandal combines political manipulation, personal ambition and institutional degradation. Corruption is as old as power itself, yet in Sanchez’s case it takes on a uniquely modern and dangerous form. His rise began with his 2014 appointment

Gavin Mortimer

Macron won’t fix the migrant crisis

The French have so far been underwhelmed by Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Britain. The late Queen was universally admired on the other side of the Channel. Less so Charles, who in the eyes of the French lacks Elizabeth’s grandeur and wisdom. There are also more pressing issues, such as the spreading wildfire that has covered the city of Marseille in a cloud of smoke and ash. Then there is the news, splashed across this morning’s Le Monde, that the poverty rate in France has reached 15.4 per cent, the highest level since records began in 1996. Furthermore, the gap between the wealthiest and poorest 20 per cent has increased

King Charles’s bromance with Macron is true soft power

As the once-promising bromance between King Charles and Keir Starmer appears to be fading, the monarch has found another leader on the world stage with whom he has a greater amount in common. As the state visit of the French President Emmanuel Macron gets underway with much earnest discussion about what this particular cross-Channel ‘special relationship’ involves (and a great deal of relief that Macron, unlike Donald Trump, can be trusted to behave himself and conduct himself with dignity and restraint on the world stage), the most important personal relationship is not that between Starmer and Macron, but between the Frenchman and the British king. When Charles made his speech

Emmanuel Macron would love to be King

When Japan’s Crown Prince Naruhito visited Windsor Castle in the early years of the 21st century, the Queen Mother gave orders that, over where he would give his speech, should be positioned the sword with which the Japanese forces had formally surrendered to Lord Mountbatten in 1945. Only an intervention from her daughter prevented this plot from becoming a reality. If I were the King I’d be counting the spoons this evening This afternoon, President Macron gave his speech underneath a statue of an old Queen. The verb in French cuisine for such unnecessary but beautiful touches like this is ‘historier’. True, Elizabeth I was more francophone than most of

Europe must prepare to support Ukraine without America

It is unquestionably the case that people who should have known better were blinded by the Capri-Sun King’s glare when they reassured us that Donald Trump would not abandon Ukraine, that a second Trump administration would not really cut off military aid to Kyiv or effectively offer a free pass to Vladimir Putin. Yet that is what is happening. Last week the US Department of Defense halted a planned delivery of air defence missiles and precision munitions to Ukraine, the third time this year that such a stoppage has been put in place. The weaponry was part of a supply programme agreed under President Biden, but was halted as the

Ireland will regret its planned Israeli settlements trade ban

If Ireland’s foreign affairs minister expected plaudits from EU leaders for the republic’s looming ban on Israeli settlement goods, he was sorely disappointed. Ireland, Simon Harris pontificated in Brussels, ‘is the only country in the entire European Union that has published any legislation ever in relation to banning trade with the occupied Palestinian territories, but it’s pretty lonely out there.’ Frankly, this is hardly surprising when you take your country on a solo run into perilous economic and diplomatic territory. The Israeli Settlements (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (PIGS) will ban goods produced, or partly produced, in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It applies

Gavin Mortimer

Corbyn is following in the footsteps of the French left

Labour has reacted with scorn to the news that Zarah Sultana has resigned from the party to create a new movement with Jeremy Corbyn. It’s reported that the MP for Coventry South, who has sat as an independent since July 2024, is still discussing the details of the new party with Corbyn – who is yet to comment on the new outfit – but whatever its form, Labour is unfazed. Gurinder Singh Josan, the MP for Smethwick, mocked Sultana for returning to ‘the irrelevance of the far left’. Another MP, David Taylor said it was a case of ‘good riddance’ and suggested any other Labour MP opposed to the proscription of

Gavin Mortimer

Starmer’s ‘one in, one out’ migrant plan will fail

Britain and France believe they have found a solution to the small boats crisis. According to reports, Keir Starmer and President Emmanuel Macron have agreed to implement a ‘one-in, one-out’ system whereby Britain will return to France illegal migrants who have crossed the Channel in small boats. Britain, for its part, will accept migrants who have a legitimate case for joining family already resident in the UK. A government source told the Times: ‘It’ll start as a pilot but it’s to prove the point that if you pay for your passage on a boat, then you could quite quickly find yourself back in France.’ Under the scheme, Britain and France would

Spain won’t escape Trump’s wrath for its Nato rebellion

At yesterday’s Nato summit in The Hague, all but one of the 32 leaders agreed to increase their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP as President Trump has been demanding. The exception was Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. His insistence that actually 2.1 per cent will be enough has enraged President Trump.  Trump described the Nato summit’s achievements as ‘tremendous’, celebrating its recognition of the need for other Nato members to take up the burden of the defence of Europe. He added that ‘it was 2 per cent [of GDP] and we’ve got it up to 5 per cent’. But he had harsh words for Spain, describing the

France wants to know the true cost of immigration

The right-wing UDR group in the French parliament, led by Eric Ciotti, has called for a parliamentary commission to calculate the true cost of immigration. Ciotti is demanding a line-by-line accounting of France’s spending on healthcare, housing, education, and emergency aid for migrants, alongside their economic contributions. The French left recoiled instantly and predictably. To move the debate on, the Socialists tabled a no-confidence motion against the Bayrou government, ostensibly over pension reform, but widely seen as a bid to deflect Ciotti’s challenge. In Paris, few are fooled: immigration is the real flashpoint. When it comes to immigration, the numbers are framed as dangerous, not because they’re made up, but

Why conservatives should embrace their Christian heritage

The heydays of Christian influence over European politics may seem long gone. In the UK, after the most recent general election, four-tenths of all MPs took secular affirmations – up from less than a quarter in 2019 – while in Europe, parties with explicitly Christian foundations often seem embarrassed about their religious heritage as they tumble down the polls. Yet Christians have not stopped turning up for those parties. To play to its strengths and resolve its identity crisis, the centre-right should embrace its Christian inheritance. By returning to this Christian inheritance, the centre-right can offer a vision that is compelling to all and re-establish its dominance Even as the

Is Dutch tolerance dying?

Campaigners across southern Europe are protesting against ‘touristification’. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, wealthy expats are in the firing line. Businesses in Amsterdam could be asked to foot the bill for local housing if they employ highly-skilled internationals. Alongside paranoia about asylum seekers, there is a rising feeling that expats and even holidaymakers are unwelcome in parts of the continent. The Netherlands was once an outward-looking, tolerant, trader nation. Is that still the case? It’s not much fun to live in a place – or even visit somewhere – that resents your presence, especially if you have bothered to learn the local language and swallowed the high tax rates that fund

Ian Williams

Has Ursula von der Leyen seen the light on China?

Coming from an American politician, the accusations would have been unsurprising. Beijing is unwilling to ‘live within the constraints of the rules-based international system’ and its trade policy is one of ‘distortion with intent’. It splashes subsidies with abandon, undercuts intellectual property protections, and as for China’s membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), that was probably a mistake too. It is bold of von der Leyen to raise the WTO, and it will be intriguing to see how she is greeted at the EU-China leaders’ summit Yet this tirade came not from an acolyte of Donald Trump, but from Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission

France’s toddler screen ban is pure state overreach

The French government is preparing to ban all screen time for children under the age of three. The measure, announced by the Minister of Labour, Health, Solidarity and Families, Catherine Vautrin, will form part of a broader national plan to combat screen use among the very young. Due to be launched in the autumn, the policy will ban tablets, televisions and smartphones in nurseries, hospitals, and other childcare settings, with sanctions for anyone who breaks the rules. The aim, according to the minister, is to change behaviour around early childhood and screen use. What next? A ban on loud toys? Fines for bedtime past eight o’clock? ‘This is how you