The recent electoral results from Germany’s Länder interweave short-term concerns and long-term challenges, and these challenges extend to China, which is facing the choices Germany made a century ago. The immediate implications of the Saxony and Thuringia elections—precisely the success of the AfD and BSW—are compounded by the complex nature of local government coalitions. The […]
EU Elections and Upcoming G7 Confirming Trends on Russia
The G7 summit in Italy opens against the backdrop of a complex EU (European Union) election result, where the European Popular Party (EPP) confirmed its central role. Its allies, the Liberals and the Socialists, encountered a severe setback but remain strong. The Conservatives and the hard right (mostly pro-Russia) made advances but did not secure […]
Meloni, the Church, and the EU: An Existential Issue
There are both trivial motives of political opportunism and deeper reasons concerning the Church’s “mission” for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to pay close attention to the warnings of CEI (Italian Bishops’ Conference) president, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, regarding the controversial bill of “differentiated autonomy.” The bill devolves significant central powers to the regions, strengthening existing centrifugal […]
PLA’s Double-Edged Sword
The EU and the US are concerned about the Chinese support for Russian military industrialization, and the PLA should think of its international thrust. On the eve of China’s President Xi Jinping’s visit to Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron sounded a loud alarm bell. He said “that Europe faces imminent danger, declaring that ‘things can […]
A European price to end the Ukrainian war
The only way “Old Europe” has to retain its clout is to stop its hesitations, decisively help Ukraine win its war quickly, and then find a future settlement for Russia fitting a Eurasian balance. Without it, France and Germany could pay a long-term high price. The Russian offensive in Ukraine is falling apart even before […]
Ukraine, EU, and Values: A Drama in Three Acts
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is recreating the bases of continental and transatlantic politics, but it is also helping to lay the foundation of a new system of values and traditions that unite more than yesterday a part of the world. Act I, Germany One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goals at the outset of the […]
An Italian Postmodern Coup
The resignation of Mario Draghi as Prime Minister of Italy, to be officially tendered next Wednesday, could trigger a chain of events going well beyond Italian borders. They could engulf the whole continent and give Russia a badly needed political win, something that so far has escaped it on the battlefields of Ukraine. One scenario […]