Europe Archive

As Spain heads into general elections this fall, all eyes are on two new political parties that threaten to upend the political establishment. On the left is the much talked about Podemos, the fiery left-wing movement so often compared to Greece’s far-left Syriza party. With an eye toward improving its electoral prospects, in recent months Podemos has moderated the radical economic program that first brought attention to the party. Podemos no longer calls for Spain to leave the eurozone; instead, it calls for flexibility in dealing with Spain’s creditors. Gone, too, are demands for a basic universal living wage and […]

Four men, including three Americans on vacation, tackled and disarmed a man who opened fire with an AK-47 on a high-speed train traveling between Amsterdam and Paris on Friday. On Monday French President Francois Hollande awarded the men the Legion of Honor at a ceremony in Paris. French authorities are treating the attack as the act of a radical Islamist. The suspect, Moroccan national Ayoub El-Khazzani, has denied that he intended to commit an act of terrorism and told French authorities he found the AK-47 and other weapons in a bag abandoned in a park in Brussels. His lawyer claims […]

Over the last two years, the notion that the impasse over Iran’s nuclear program could be solved has gone from being a theoretical possibility to becoming a reality, with the landmark agreement between Tehran and six world powers. The potential lifting of Western economic sanctions on Iran has, in turn, quickly boosted interest in the Iranian economy, especially in Europe, which sees a market re-emerging with significant potential, ready for international investments, technology and goods. But in a somewhat contradictory way, the Iranian economy has both been underestimated during the last five years of sanctions, and now runs the risk […]

After reports last week that France and Russia reached a deal on compensation for France’s decision to cancel the sale of two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said in an interview Friday that the exact amount France will pay Russia will be announced when the deal is approved by Parliament. It was first reported that France would repay Russia $1.3 billion for the nixed deal, which would include compensation for the training of 400 Russian sailors and updated port infrastructure in Vladivostok. Reports later surfaced that the price tag would be closer to $2.2 billion. But […]

Ever since the last-minute agreement reached last month to reopen negotiations for a third bailout for Greece, Germany has become the target of harsh criticism both in the European Union and the United States. The agreement, which set even harsher terms for reopening talks than what had been on offer before Athens called for a referendum it hoped would strengthen its bargaining position, has been characterized as a “German diktat,” with critics calling the German government vindictive, contemptuous and brutal. Such criticism stands in stark contrast to perspectives in Berlin, where many policymakers regard the compromise found as a rather […]

On July 30, Societe Generale, one of France’s biggest banks, was declared an “assisting witness”—somewhere between a suspect and a witness—in a money-laundering case against Teodorin Obiang, the son of Teodoro Obiang, Equatorial Guinea’s president who has been in power since 1979. Days later, Maixent Accrombessi, a close aide to Gabon’s president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, was held for questioning in a corruption probe in Paris hours before he was set to return to Libreville. His detention was part of an ongoing investigation into the French military-uniform company Marck—which signed a $7.6 million contract with Gabon in 2005—on suspicions of corruption […]

It is turning into a summer of big diplomatic deals at the United Nations. Two weeks ago, the Security Council endorsed the Iranian nuclear deal. This weekend, diplomats signed off on an arguably even more complex bargain: the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is a sprawling set of 169 targets that the world is meant to achieve by 2030, ranging from eradicating poverty to fostering peaceful societies. Skeptical commentators worry that this amalgam of good intentions is too unwieldy to gain traction, in contrast to the crisper Millennium Development Goals articulated in 2000. But it is still impressive that […]