After considerable speculation, the far-right journalist Eric Zemmour has declared his candidacy for the 2022 French presidential elections on YouTube. His video harks back to General de Gaulle's 1940 call to resistance and warns that French culture is disappearing as a result of immigration. Europe's press voices concern.
Nato representatives are currently meeting in the Latvian capital Riga to discuss the situation in Belarus and Ukraine, among other issues. The mass deployment of Russian troops to the border with Ukraine and the crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border have increased tensions in the last few weeks. Commentators discuss the seriousness of the threat.
After a considerable back-and-forth Magdalena Andersson is once again Prime Minister of Sweden. The Riksdag re-elected her to the post on Monday after she had resigned last Wednesday shortly after her election because the Centre (C) refused to back the government's budget. The Green Party (MP) is no longer part of what is now a rather weak minority government. What are the PM's chances of success?
The controversial Romanian lawyer Laura Vicol (PSD) has been elected head of the Legal Commission of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies by the new government. She has represented criminal gang leaders in recent years and repeatedly criticised the Anticorruption Directorate and the rule of law. The PSD has announced it will review the nomination next Monday.
In Hungary, a leaked speech by parliamentary speaker László Kövér (Fidesz) to top national intelligence officials is causing a commotion. In the speech Kövér states that the greatest risk to national security is that the political class is so divided in its view of the state and the nation, and that part of the political class - the opposition - wants to pursue self-destructive policies. The latter sees itself branded as an enemy of the state.
After a break of several months, diplomats from France, the UK, Germany, Russia and China are currently meeting with Iranian representatives to resume talks on the 2015 nuclear accord. After former US president Trump abandoned the deal in 2018, Iran significantly boosted its nuclear programme. Now Tehran is demanding that all sanctions against it be lifted. Europe's press sees little chance of an agreement.
The new Covid variant Omicron which was first discovered in South Africa has the world on tenterhooks again. Despite the swift introduction of travel restrictions, several cases of the new variant have already been detected in Europe. It remains unclear how effective vaccines are against it. Europe's press reflects a consensus that this latest scare is a result of the neglect of poorer countries in the fight against Covid.
According to a recent study, only 23 percent of Poles between the age of 18 and 25 still practice their religion. In 1992 it was just under 70 percent. In view of the great influence of the Catholic Church on politics, society and the media, as well as other factors, the Polish press speculates on the causes and effects of this decline in religiosity.
Josephine Baker will enter the Panthéon in Paris today. President Macron explained her induction saying that she embodies the values of the French Republic. The actor, dancer and singer was active in the French resistance during World War II and campaigned for many years against racism. There is rare consensus in the country's media about this homage to Baker.
After the surprise victory of the party We Continue the Change in the Bulgarian parliamentary election two weeks ago, it now faces the task of finding coalition partners in the country's fragmented political landscape. Four of the six parties that got into parliament have declared themselves prepared to engage in talks. The national press vacillates between optimism and resignation.
The inflation rate in the Eurozone climbed to 4.1 percent in October. Critics accuse the ECB of fueling this trend with its loose monetary policy, which involves pumping billions into money markets through bond purchases. ECB chief Christine Lagarde has now responded by calling for patience, saying that inflation will decline without intervention by the central bank.
Germany's first "traffic light" governing coalition comprising the SPD, the Greens and the FDP has unveiled its coalition agreement. The future German cabinet is also taking shape. The media discuss what Europe can expect from the country’s social democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, and above all its liberal FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner.