Following the crushing defeat of Germany's governing coalition parties in the EU elections, high-profile opposition figures are urging German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to call snap elections, as French President Emmanuel Macron did after his party was decimated by Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National.
The Eurosceptic parties Vlaams Belang and N-VA have won around a third of the vote in the European elections with around 14% each, giving the far-right ID and ECR a combined six seats out of Belgium’s 22 in the European Parliament.
Tilly Metz (Greens/EFA) will remain an MEP for the next five years despite earlier polling consistently predicting a total wipeout for the Green Party in the European Parliament.
Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV (ID) has come out as the largest single party as it grabbed six seats in the European Parliament, though the nine seats won by the Frans Timmermans-Bas Eickhout double-team cements them as the main opposition force in the country.
France will deliver Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine and train pilots over the next six months, according to President Emmanuel Macron, who made announcements on Thursday.
Franco-German armoured vehicle manufacturer KNDS is to open its first factory on Ukrainian soil, France confirmed, with details to be worked out between Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelenskyy when they meet at the Normandy landings commemorations on Thursday.
Germany's exit from the EU, labeled as "Dexit", would cost the country's economy €200 billion a year, business lobby INSM warned, as Germany's far-right AfD party, currently second in the polls ahead of this weekend's EU elections, maintains a strong anti-EU rhetoric.
The French government survived two no-confidence votes in response to its announcement of further budget cuts on Monday, a development that threatens to erode further the already dwindling popularity of President Emmanuel Macron's camp ahead of Sunday's European elections.
French Economy and Energy Minister Bruno Le Maire claimed to have “saved the French economy” after the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine after Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings downgraded the country’s credit rating on Saturday.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) is considering the possibility of her country participating in an international protection force for Gaza, as previously called for by the Arab League.
Belgium's far-right Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang party vowed Sunday (2 June) to score a stunning victory in next weekend's elections and become the leading political force in the Dutch-speaking north.
In the most heated moments of the first German EU election debate on Thursday (30 May), centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) chief Manfred Weber was at pains to reconcile his opposition to the EU’s combustion-engine ban with his support for Ursula von der Leyen, who notably abstained.
German interior minister Nancy Faeser (SPD, S&D) has extended controversial checks at the border with Czechia, Poland, and Switzerland on Wednesday for the first time since introducing them last year while praising their effectiveness.
France’s Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday Kyiv should be able to attack specific Russian-based military sites used to launch missiles onto Ukrainian territory, or else “we are sending weapons to Ukraine but telling them they can’t use it”, while Germany is more cautious and Italy maintains its opposition on the matter.
The aspirations of Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), Germany’s rising ‘left-conservative’ party, to form a new group in the European Parliament remain shrouded in mystery, as other leftists seem, so far, to keep their distance.
While the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has explained that she is prepared to work with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) under certain conditions, François-Xavier Bellamy, the head of the French Republicans (LR) list, seems to be leaving the door open to discussions with the far-right group.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have urged voters to take part in June’s European elections, which they say is a bid to protect democracy amid a likely shift to the far right in the EU parliament.
France’s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and far-right Rassemblement National (RN) lead candidate Jordan Bardella engaged in an unprecedented TV debate on Thursday, hoping to sway voters just days before the European elections.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire have announced several initiatives to bolster artificial intelligence in France and Europe, saying the bloc “must learn to innovate before regulating”.
Rassemblement National’s (RN) President Jordan Bardella announced on Tuesday that the party will end the alliance with his German counterpart Alternative for Germany (AfD), a fellow member of the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group.
Offences against politicians have increased in the last year in Germany, highlighted by recent violent attacks against a couple of leading politicians on their campaign trail.
The list backed by French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance (Renew) gets 15.5% of the vote – its lowest level since the start of the European election campaign – and now ranks behind the socialist party, according to the latest Elabe poll published on Saturday.
Germany’s top economic advisory body, the Council of Economic Experts, on Wednesday slashed its growth forecast for 2024, as the country is once again expected to be among the worst-performing economies in the EU.
The French Socialist Party is going into the EU elections with a manifesto based on the war in Ukraine, a green transition, social justice and institutional reform, the party’s EU election list leader Raphaël Glucksmann, who has recently been rising in the polls, unveiled at a press conference Wednesday.
