Category Archives: Europe

Support for populist sentiment falls across Europe, survey finds

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YouGov/Guardian poll finds ‘clear pattern of decreasing support for populism’ in European countries

Support for populist sentiment in Europe has fallen sharply over the past three years, according to a major YouGov survey, with markedly fewer people agreeing with key statements designed to measure it.

The YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project’s annual populism tracker, produced with the Guardian, found populist beliefs in broadly sustained decline in 10 European countries, prompting its authors to suggest the wider electoral appeal of some may have peaked.

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Dining across the divide: ‘I think some of the ideas are horrible – but it’s nice to sit and talk’

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One is a Belgian resident in the UK, the other was a Ukip candidate: can two strangers find any common ground?

Stijn, 47, Norwich

Occupation Humanitarian aid worker

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‘Horrific’: 10 people suffocate in overcrowded migrant boat off Libya

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MSF rescue 99 survivors who spent 13 hours on vessel trying to reach Europe as authorities accused of ignoring distress call

Ten people were found dead in the lower deck of a severely overcrowded wooden boat off the coast of Libya, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has reported.

According to survivors, those who died on Tuesday suffocated after 13 hours on the cramped lower deck, where there had been a strong smell of fuel.

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Lukashenko has got the ear of the EU at last – but it won’t help him

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The Belarusian leader may have won phone talks with Angela Merkel but Europe remains united against him

As migrants camped out in the woods prepared for another night of sub-zero temperatures, the Estonian foreign minister, Eva-Maria Liimets, on Tuesday revealed to an evening news programme the gist of what Alexander Lukashenko demanded of Angela Merkel in the first call between a European leader and Belarus’s dictator in more than a year.

“He wants the sanctions to be halted, [and] to be recognised as head of state so he can continue,” she said he told Merkel.

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Royal Institution cancels event with far-right French pundit Éric Zemmour

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Function in London cancelled over ‘due diligence’ of Zemmour, who has convictions for inciting racial hatred

London’s prestigious Royal Institution has cancelled an event at which the far-right French TV pundit Éric Zemmour was due to speak on Friday.

Zemmour, who has convictions for inciting racial hatred, is due to arrive in London on Thursday as he ponders a potential run in France’s presidential elections next year.

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Greek prime minister to appeal to British public for return of Parthenon marbles

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Kyriakos Mitsotakis undeterred in Athens’ quest for classical sculptures after Johnson refuses to negotiate

Athens has vowed to use “every means” in its quest to persuade London to relinquish the Parthenon sculptures, with a campaign that will focus on winning over the hearts and minds of Britons.

Far from being discouraged by Boris Johnson’s refusal on Tuesday to engage in intergovernmental talks over the demand for the return of the 5th century BC artwork, the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, appeared to be buoyed by his visit to the UK.

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Belarusian border crisis could last for months, says Polish minister

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Warning comes as police fire teargas and deploy water cannon against people trying to cross into Poland

Poland’s defence minister has said the crisis on the Belarusian border could last for months, as Alexander Lukashenko claimed he had agreed to direct talks with the European Union on solving the crisis.

The agreement was reported by Belarusian state media, which said that Lukashenko and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, spoke on Wednesday for the second time this week.

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French dictionary accused of ‘wokeism’ over gender-inclusive pronoun

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Education minister condemns use of ‘iel’, saying inclusive writing is not the future of the French language

A French reference dictionary has defended its official recognition of a gender-inclusive pronoun, after traditionalists pounced on what they called the latest incursion of US-inspired “wokeism”.

While the everyday use of “iel” – a neologism combining the French words for he and she (“il” and “elle”) – remains largely anecdotal for now, critics deem it a linguistic affront that needs to be banned.

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French presidential hopeful Éric Zemmour begins race hate trial

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Far-right TV pundit on trial for calling unaccompanied child migrants ‘thieves, killers and rapists’

Éric Zemmour, the far-right TV pundit who is preparing to run for French president claiming that Islam and immigration are destroying France, has gone on trial in Paris on charges of incitement to racial hatred.

The case relates to remarks the 63-year-old polemicist made on television last year when he called unaccompanied child migrants “thieves, killers and rapists”.

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Covid live news: fourth wave hitting Germany with ‘full force’, Merkel warns; Belgium mandates working from home

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Angela Merkel calls for an extra push on vaccinations; Belgium tightens restrictions as cases rise in fourth wave

Agence France-Presse is reporting that delivery and logistics firm FedEx have announced it is closing its operations base in Hong Kong over the city’s quarantine requirements.

“As the global business environment continues to evolve and with the pandemic requirements in Hong Kong, FedEx has made the decision to close its Hong Kong crew base and relocate its pilots,” FedEx said in a statement to Hong Kong’s public broadcaster RTHK.

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Nazis based their elite schools on top British private schools

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Eton and Harrow among those whose ‘character-building’ qualities were admired by German educators in 1930s and 1940s

Nazi Germany’s elite schools, which were set up to train future leaders of the Third Reich, used British private schools such as Eton and Harrow as their models, a new book reveals.

The historian Helen Roche has written the first comprehensive history of Nazi elite schools, known as Napolas. Drawing on research undertaken in 80 archives in six countries as well as testimonies from more than 100 former pupils, Roche discovered just how keen the Nazis were to learn from the “character-forming” example of the British system.

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‘I don’t blame customers for getting annoyed’: a coffee house owner on life without EU workers

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Anas Zein Al-Abdeen owns a chain of four Middle Eastern coffee houses around Birmingham. But, the 40-year-old says, while customers are plentiful, staff are another matter

Anas Zein Al-Abdeen doesn’t want to close his business for three days a week – but, increasingly, it looks like his only option. He simply can’t get the staff. “It’s horrific,” he says. “We can’t plan for anything.”

The 40-year-old British-Syrian businessman runs Damascena, an independent chain of four Middle Eastern coffee houses in and around Birmingham. All of his cafes are affected, but the one in central Birmingham is the most short-staffed, with 25 workers instead of the usual 30. “It’s very stressful,” he says. “Most businesses worry about getting customers. But I’m just worried if we can serve them or not.”

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Coronavirus live: Ireland brings in midnight curfew; Cyprus offers boosters to all adults

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Irish restrictions include advice to work from home to fight rising hospitalisations; Cyprus health officials react to rising cases

Our economics editor Larry Elliott has written his analysis this morning on how the UK economy is beginning to emerge from Covid, but old problems remain. He concludes:

The economy as a whole is now starting to go post-Covid. The inflation figures due out on Wednesday will still show the impact of the virus on global energy prices and on supply chains but in other respects it is as if the past 18 months never happened.

There are two sides to that. The good news is that the labour market has emerged relatively unscathed. The bad news is that the problems of February 2020 – low investment, low productivity, weak underlying growth – are problems that remain to be tackled in November 2021.

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Polish police fire teargas at people trying to cross from Belarus

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Footage also shows water cannon being used as dozens of men approach border fence throwing rocks

Polish riot police on the country’s border with Belarus have fired water cannon and teargas at people forcibly attempting to cross into the European Union.

The clashes come a day after EU governments approved sanctions against the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, for allegedly engineering the crisis by allowing thousands of asylum-seekers from the Middle East to travel through Belarus to the border with Poland.

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Germany suspends approval for Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline

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Move follows mounting politcal pressure to scrap project in setback to Kremlin-backed project

Germany has suspended its approval process for the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline which would double its reliance on Russian gas following growing geopolitical pressure to scrap the project.

Energy markets across Europe surged after the German energy regulator suspended its certification process, in a big setback to Kremlin-backed Gazprom’s plans to extend Russian gas dominance via a new pipeline across the Baltic Sea.

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Return of Parthenon marbles is up to British Museum, says No 10

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Spokesperson’s comments before Boris Johnson meets Greek PM appear to signal softening of position

Returning the Parthenon marbles to Greece is a matter for the British Museum, Downing Street has said, apparently reversing longstanding UK government opposition to the idea, reiterated by Boris Johnson as recently as March.

Johnson was scheduled to meet the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, at No 10 later on Tuesday, and Mitsotakis was expected to argue that the reunification of the “stolen” sculptures was a key mutual issue, and one that had to be resolved by ministers.

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Poland-Belarus border crisis: water cannon and teargas fired at migrants – video report

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Polish riot police on the country’s border with Belarus have fired water cannon and teargas at people forcibly attempting to cross into the European Union. Dozens of men threw rocks and approached a fence near the border crossing at the Polish town of Kuźnica. The clashes come a day after EU governments approved sanctions against the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, for allegedly engineering the crisis by allowing thousands of asylum seekers from the Middle East to travel through Belarus to the border with Poland

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EU agrees new sanctions against Belarus over border crisis

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Sanctions to target ‘people, airlines, travel agencies and everyone involved in this illegal push of migrants’

The EU has agreed on new sanctions against Belarus targeting “everyone involved” in facilitating the transport of people to Belarus’s border with Poland, where thousands are stuck in makeshift camps in freezing weather.

The EU accuses Alexander Lukashenko’s regime of waging a “hybrid attack” against the bloc by allowing people from the Middle East who are desperate to reach the EU to fly into Minsk then head for the Polish border.

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Fortress EU is beating Belarus, with refugees as pawns in cruel game

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Analysis: Lukashenko’s strategy seems to have backfired, with a united European Union placing sanctions against his regime

There was chaos at the border. Thousands of Middle Eastern refugees and migrants had massed at the crossing point to the European Union, hoping for a better life. Many had been taken to the barbed-wire fence on state-funded buses, after the authoritarian leader made good on years-long threats “to open the gates to Europe”. But when people arrived, the hope of a better life collided with police teargas and stun grenades.

This was not a scene from the Polish-Belarus border this week, but Greece’s land border with Turkey less than two years ago.

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Austrian police carry out routine checks as unvaccinated enter lockdown

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Experts warn rules will be hard to enforce, as country records highest Covid infection rate in western Europe

Police in Austria have begun carrying out routine checks on commuters to ensure compliance with a nationwide “lockdown for the unvaccinated”, as the Alpine country tries to get on top of one of the most rapidly rising infection rates in Europe.

The restrictions, which came into effect on Monday morning, will affect almost 2 million Austrian citizens aged 12 and older who have so far not been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Of those, the 356,000 people who have been vaccinated only once can be released from lockdown if they show a negative PCR test.

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