In this episode, Leszek Jażdżewski talks with Niccolo Milanese about the recent parliamentary election in France and its consequences for the future of Europe, as well as about the Ukrainian and Moldovan application for the EU candidacy.
When we face serious problems, such as economic crises, the people, at least in France and Spain, prefer to leave the government in calmer hands – perhaps less charismatic, but better prepared.
While Western democracy is showing increasing signs of uncertainty, people look, with quiet admiration, to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The power in those countries is in hand, stable and effective at affecting people’s behavior and actions.
The now famous phone call between President Trump and President Zelensky released to the public in September attracted most attention around the Biden affair and possible links to US military assistance. Less noticed were Trump’s remarks that Europe did nothing for Ukraine.
French President Emanuel Macron addressed the citizens of the EU is a special letter, entitled “For European renewal”, published simultaneously in select media in all member states. This move by Macron is not surprising.
At the end of the day, efforts to protect domestic businesses are always paid by the consumers. Nothing is free, the same is true also for protectionism. It leads to higher prices and worse quality of services that protected businesses offer.
French President Emmanuel Macron has embarked on a mission to Central and Eastern Europe with a strange idea. He lobbies for a directive to shorten the stay and to increase the salaries of our posted workers, from the minimum wage level, to salaries equal up to the level of French or German employees in the sector.
The Swedish think tank Timbro has presented its “Authoritarian Populism Index”. The index “aims to shed light on whether populism poses a long-term threat to European liberal democracies” (it includes the EU countries as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Serbia, and Montenegro)
Recently, the eyes of Europe were on the presidential election in France. Macron managed to convince 8.6 mln voters to support him within a year. Although no politician dares to say it out loud, by looking at the outcome, all politicians think about their own careers. And draw conclusions.
Similarly to Le Pen, Donald Trump or Brexit, Kotleba has been playing on the same phenomenon (the frustrated, dissatisfied people), which he skillfully manipulates to such an extent that he easily gets public support. The real threat to Europe is right now posed by Europeans themselves.
