About: The Brief
The Brief – At NATO, names matter (a little)
Est. 5minThe Western military alliance has a lot on its plate: Its members have to figure out how to secure defence aid to Ukraine, deal with the impact of China’s relations with Russia, when to use their mutual defence assistance clause Article 5… and how to name new things.
The Brief – Message from the three Italian tenors
Est. 6minThe United States is such an important country: Whatever they decide affects us so much that it's almost like the whole world should be allowed to vote in US elections. With these provocative words, I started an opinion piece written exactly twenty years ago.
The Brief – Things can only get better, or why the UK is turning left
Est. 6minAs the United Kingdom and France go to the polls in the next few days, we look at why the British public is turning left, towards Labour, at a time when Europe is turning towards far-right parties.
The Brief – Cordon sanitaire, uncordoned
Est. 7minThe cordon sanitaire was once a non-negotiable electoral strategy that parties across the French political aisles implemented to block the far right from getting to power, but it is now shattered almost to the point of irrelevance.
The Brief – No light at the end of the tunnel?
Est. 5minFrench far right lurches toward power. Viktor Orbán’s Hungary to lead the EU for the next six months. AfD states aim to govern Germany. Pro-Russian patriarch elected in Bulgaria. In the US, Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance augurs his election route in November.
The Brief – When politicians don’t want the top jobs
Est. 5minIn Brussels, politicians haggled over top jobs this week. In Dublin, nobody will take them.
The Brief – Hardline EU trio to confront Putin
Est. 6minWe can only second-guess what Vladimir Putin’s goals were when he started the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We can see that in the meantime, NATO has become bigger and stronger, and today, the EU may agree a lineup of new leaders considered “hawks” towards the Kremlin.
The Brief – Emmanuel Macron, the lonely man
Est. 5minSome empires take centuries to die. Others fall in a matter of days, like overripe fruit. President Emmanuel Macron is neither a tsar nor a sultan, but he has ruled France unchallenged since 2017 and his time is now running out.
The Brief – Ursula von der Leyen’s green 420
Est. 6minOn the hunt for lawmakers to bolster her chances at a second term at the helm of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen may end up taking the Greens to the ball – because, in their own words, they offer stability. It is a story of Germans working with Germans.
The Brief – Single-handed manmade disasters
Est. 7minClimate change is a manmade disaster caused by mankind as a whole. But history remembers disasters of dramatic proportions caused by a single man. We are currently paying the price of at least two such disasters.
The Brief – Who cares about competitiveness?
Est. 7minSometime next month, former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi—“the guy who saved the euro”—will publish his much-anticipated report on the competitiveness of the European economy.
The Brief – Did Ursula stab Macron in the back?
Est. 6minIt looks like she did. The European Commission announced it intends to open the first excessive deficit procedure against France—coming at the worst time ever—11 days before the first round of the snap legislative elections that may become a nightmare for the French president.
The Brief – Farage’s UK election tactics means a far-right that is all talk but no trousers
Est. 6minNigel Farage has the British electorate's attention, but his latest moves against the Labour party could doom an otherwise popular British far-right to political irrelevance.
The Brief – What lessons Europe’s progressives can learn from India’s elections
Est. 6minAs the results of the European elections continue causing political turmoil across the EU and progressive parties are trying to figure out how to win back votes, maybe they should look to their counterparts in India. Against the odds, they made gains against Narendra Modi and his right-wing party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Brief – The dinner of frustration
Est. 6minIn psychology, frustration is an emotion arising from perceived obstacles to fulfilling one’s will or goal. In EU politics, frustration is today’s special.
The Brief – Germany needs another summer fairy tale
Est. 6minWith Germany in the throes of economic stagnation and political infighting, the only thing that could lift Europe’s largest economy out of the doldrums, it seems, is success in football at its home tournament.
The Brief – A battle against disinformation was won
Est. 7minWe may like or dislike the results of the European elections, but we can safely say that no major incidents involving propaganda and disinformation took place in the days of 6-9 June, which amounts to a victory for those who are busy countering this threat.
The Brief – France’s political scene in chaos
Est. 4minThree days after the European elections and Emmanuel Macron's dissolution of the National Assembly, the French political landscape is a field of ruins.
The Brief – The kids are federalist now
Est. 6minYoung voters in Western Europe turned out surprisingly in favour of a 'United States of Europe' in the European elections, paving the way for passing the torch in the EU's dusty federalist circles.
The Brief – Who needs a weak France?
Est. 7minThe announcement by President Emmanuel Macron that he is dissolving the National Assembly and calling snap elections caught me (and the rest of the world, probably) by surprise just two minutes before I went live on TV on Sunday night.
The Brief – Groundhog Day for Europe’s ‘far-right surge’
Est. 6minToo often we speak about the surge of 'the far-right' in Europe but we forget this is neither new nor too surprising. The reality is, the far-right is joining the mainstream as we speak.
The Brief – Remembering D-Day and its legacy to Europe
Est. 6minToday’s 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings is an opportunity to remember a great military victory against the Nazis but also - on the day European elections start - an important reminder to voters of the values that were fought for, which become the basis of the EU.
The Brief – Make electric cars, not war
Est. 6minThe global liberal order has long been written off. It was naïve, the argument now goes, to think that trade would bind together countries’ interests and encourage cooperation over conflict. But Europe’s current China contortions suggest that global trade can still keep the peace.
The Brief – Lord, protect me from my friends
Est. 6min“Lord, protect me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies” is a quote attributed to many, specifically to Voltaire. In recent times, the tensions between Joe Biden and his main Western allies over the two conflicts burning at the gates of Europe have never been so visible.