Europe

Paris has banned e-scooters after the people were asked to vote in a referendum. Not many of the capital’s 1.38 million registered citizens bothered to cast their ballot on Sunday, but of the 103,000 who did 90 per cent voted against.   The Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo hailed the referendum as a red letter day for ‘participative democracy’ over ‘democracy of public opinion and polls’. The city’s three e-scooter operators – Dott, Lime and Tier – quickly cried foul, citing what they described as ‘very restrictive voting methods’; only 21 voting stations were open, and there was no internet voting. Often derided as the ‘president of the rich’, Macron could

A journalist and observer of Finnish politics once said there is one headline that works for every Finnish election: ‘Finland elects new government, nothing will change’. Few prime ministers have survived longer than one term in the Arctic nation. Just as day becomes night and that spring follows on winter, the rhythm of the country’s elections has been to hand victory to the main opposition party – depending on which of them that was outside the last ruling coalition. Finland’s major parties are all centrist and pragmatic, and the difference between the left and the right is hard to detect. Even the populist Finns party feels tidy and well-behaved. With

Stéphane Rozès, the author of a book entitled ‘Chaos’, was on French radio this week receiving congratulations for being a visionary. The chaos which he described in his book, published last November, is now being played out in France, as hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets. Asked to explain its cause, Rozès explained that it has been building since 1992, the year France signed the Maastricht Treaty, the beginning of the European Union.  Rozès is not alone in this view. One of France’s best known philosophers, the left-wing Michel Onfray, has been saying the same thing for years. ‘France died in 1992, the date of the Maastricht

Amsterdam has launched a campaign telling rowdy Brits to stay away. Men between the age of 18 and 35 are being targeted with videos showing what happens to those who overindulge. Brits who search online for terms like ‘stag do’, ‘cheap Amsterdam accommodation’ and ‘pub crawl Amsterdam’ will be served with the warning adverts featuring tourists being locked up or hospitalised. To put it in wrestling terms, we’ve well and truly become the ‘heels’ of Europe. Brexit, it seems, has catalysed the unfair ‘bad boy Brit’ persona of a sometimes sluggish, mostly uncultured and drunken nation which urinates and swears its way across the continent while ordering beige grub in

King Charles III is going down a storm in Berlin. Hundreds of wellwishers have turned out to greet the King during a reception at the Brandenburg Gate – and the monarch, who is on his first trip abroad since taking the throne, seems relaxed. But amidst the selfies and Burger King hats (which many of those who turned out to see the King have opted to wear), there is serious business to be done – and German politicians are optimistic that Charles’s visit can repair some of the damage caused by Brexit. While Charles’s mother Elizabeth was seen as apolitical, the King’s past commitments to social and ecological causes have

Cast your mind back just over a decade, to a charity benefit gig in St. Petersburg in 2010. Sharon Stone, Kevin Costner, Gerard Depardieu, Vincent Cassel, Goldie Hawn and Monica Belluci are in the audience. But the star-turn is performed by a man from another branch of entertainment altogether (‘show-business for ugly people’) who in a warbling voice is giving us his rendition of Fats Domino’s ‘Blueberry Hill.’ The stars clap and beam at this new addition to their ranks – the man then taking time off as president to play Russia’s prime minister and, on special occasions, chanteur to the stars: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. In this, you might argue, the celebrities

Yesterday was a day of anarchy in France – and the protests overnight have led to King Charles’s state visit to France, which was due to start this weekend, being cancelled. The King had been due to visit Paris and Bordeaux, two of the cities hit by the most extreme violence. In Bordeaux, a town hall was sacked. In Lorient, a police station was attacked – and in Nantes a court was vandalised. The worst of the violence was in Paris. Hundreds of thugs clad in black fought running battles with police, 149 of whom were injured, and they also smashed and looted shops, banks and restaurants. Gérald Darmanin, the Interior

Is Emmanuel Macron reaching his Liz Truss moment when financial markets finally determine his future? On 20 March Moody’s ratings agency strode into France’s explosive pensions reform turmoil. While keeping France’s rating at Aa2 ‘stable’ it nevertheless warned that President Macron’s constitutional sleight of hand denying the National Assembly a vote on the bill risked undermining future macro-economic reforms for the four remaining years of his mandate.  Two days later, citing political tension and social unrest, Fitch Ratings warned that the government’s ability to reduce high public debt will be constrained. Uncertainty surrounding the debt trajectory is reflected in the negative outlook on France’s ‘AA’ rating. Fitch warned that an increase

Ever since last February’s invasion, Russia has used Crimea – annexed in 2014 – as a base for its military. But that base is now under regular attack. Last night, cruise missiles being transported from Crimea were blown up by drones. The attack was in Dzhankoi, a junction just north of Crimea used by Russia to supply troops in the mainland. The attack exposes not just the vulnerability of Putin’s military (the $6m-a-throw Kalibr missiles should not be vulnerable to drone attack) but the quality of Ukraine’s intelligence. It appears that someone on the inside leaked information about moving the missiles. These missiles – with a 1,500-mile range – have

France is on the brink of another revolution! The proles are swarming to the barricades and it’s only a matter of time before President Macron is dragged from the Élysée palace.  That is the gist of some of the more excitable reporting about what happened yesterday in France. It was certainly a dramatic day after the government forced through its pension reform bill that will increase the age of retirement from 62 to 64. It did so on the orders of Macron, deploying a controversial clause in the constitution – article 49.3 – which legalises a bill without the need for a parliamentary vote.   Where were the opposition MPs in

They say Spring is a magical time to visit Paris but perhaps not this year. It’s not so much love that is in the air of the French capital but the stench from 7,000 tons of uncollected rubbish.  The city’s refuse collectors have been on strike as part of the nationwide protests against the government’s pension reform. Workers at the three incinerators that dispose of Paris’s garbage have also downed tools and the walkout will last until at least Monday 20 March.   It’s not a strike that affects all the capital. In some of the arrondissements, private firms empty the bins and it is business as usual for them. But

America must get tough against the Mexican drug cartels, former US Attorney General, William Barr, declared earlier this month. Likening them to Isis, he backed a joint resolution from two Republican senators, giving the US president authority to deploy the military against the cartels in Mexico. Failure to do so would, he warned, allow the cartels to continue flooding the US with their ‘deadly drugs on an industrial scale’. America’s anti-drug strategy was ineffective because, he said, ‘it leaves the drug supply chain untouched…real progress requires aggressively attacking the drug supply at its source. The head of the snake is in Mexico.’  Europe must apply a similar approach if it’s to solve