Knock ’em down, but they get up again: AUR may oust Romania’s pro-EU government
One year ago, on May 4, 2025, George Simion achieved a historic result in the first round of the presidential election, winning approximately 41 per cent of the…
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Opinion
Latest reporting and analysis on opinion.
Win victory in a democracy: Just give the people what they want and need
Elites worldwide are saying that incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s win is a template for how to beat conservative populism worldwide.
The anti-fascists are now funding fascists
In recent weeks, I keep coming across new items that need constant double-checking, because they are so absurd that at first glance they appear made up.
Midnight Express 2026: EU indifferent to European tourists in Turkish prison
The shadow of Alan Parker’s Midnight Express has returned to Istanbul.
Weak, sinking Merz has no intention of following through on any of his promises
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is a man who knows what to say to grab headlines.
Tech has broken our entire world model, but we are in denial
Geopolitics is in flux, history has “returned”, there is war, political upheaval and technological disruption everywhere: These matters command an overwhelming…
Ignore the Trump-haters, Iran is desperate
All those whose psychological equilibrium is disturbed by the ability of the United States to take dramatic unilateral action without collegialising its decisions…
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Merz now least popular politician in Germany
Merz has become the least popular politician in Germany with a mere 28.
‘Human rights lawyers’: Leave them naked in a frozen prison cell
If Lord Richard Hermer were well-known in any other European country, it would probably be as a traitor, and he would now be manacled to the wall in an ice-cold…
Going Greek style? A brief note on Poland’s shocking budget deficit
Poland is around the EU average in terms of public debt-to-GDP.
Neither bombs nor reformist illusions will deliver freedom in Iran
The Iranian situation is as dangerous as it is misunderstood. A fragile ceasefire hangs by a thread. The region remains volatile.
Macron calls on Brussels to extend censorship to lock down 2027
On April 17, the press revealed that the Élysée Palace is pressing the European Commission to revise the guidelines of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in order…
Ukraine is still there – Europe’s “forever war” needs a holistic solution
Spring flowers are blooming in the Donbas across a landscape of iron and fire.
Is populism a distraction from a more important fight?
The sinister news this week that British courts have greenlighted the police’s use of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology in public spaces is yet another…
There will be no European Union nuclear deterrent
Nuclear weapons are treated by the governments that have them as a useful tool. Obtaining a nuclear weapon enters you into a rare club where you are Taken Seriously.
The most overwhelmingly one-sided war victory, by America alone
As this piece is written on Tuesday afternoon, the Iran war continues to be unprecedented in a number of respects.
China gleefully watches the Iran mess, as Europe is becoming a vassal continent
While Washington remains mired in the tactical mud of the Middle East, acting reckless, erratic, and increasingly lawless, China is playing a calm, long game.
Starmer is sinking, borrow the Bismarck!
The British Prime Minister awoke before dawn, this morning, April 21, 2026, sensing a strange presence nearby. He turned on the bedside light. No, nothing there.
Industrial policy or collective defence: Europe picks one
Another round of couples counseling last week failed to resolve the grinding Franco-Teuton dispute over the beleaguered Future Combat Air System (FCAS).
Hungary’s election was clean. The campaign was not
I have just returned from Budapest.
EU industrial policy fails, so European prime ministers go to China
Pedro Sánchez arrived in Beijing on April 14, 2026 to a full military honours reception and left having signed nineteen bilateral agreements with China — covering…
Europe’s vape ban fantasy is fueling black markets and sending smokers back to cigarettes
The Dutch flavour ban was meant to protect public health. Instead, it exposes a deeper flaw in Brussels’ thinking: You cannot regulate demand out of existence.
NATO’s death and what it would mean for Europe
The mess we are in is getting deeper.
What the EU elite know as Magyar surrenders to Brussels: Populism is nothing without sovereignty
At 9.
To predict Trump’s legacy, look to Henry VIII
President Trump’s recent attack on Pope Leo XIV has caused consternation and not a little surprise in some quarters of elite opinion as well as among many Christians…
‘Dangerous times’, but Western nationalism is not dead yet
When a party loses an election, they usually seek to determine what went wrong, almost inevitably coming up with two solutions for the next one: Back off or double…
US and Catholic Church must maintain a united front against ‘the Antichrist of our time’
The intemperate exchange between President Trump and Pope Leo XIV over the weekend said nothing flattering or even positive about either of them.
Orbán goes: How voter fatigue drives leaders from office, no matter how good they are
A lot will be written about the end of the era of Orbán in Hungary, so allow me to add a bit of a meta perspective.
The piffle from von der Leyen: ‘The Union grows stronger’
Last weekend, on nearly opposite sides of the EU, two states revealed how the cumbrous juggernaut of the union is not working. No, sorry, cannot be made to work.
Brussels set a new standard of brutality in Hungarian campaign
The hotel where I’m staying in Budapest is dominated by journalists and election observers.