Europe Archive

When U.S. Republicans gathered to nominate Donald Trump as their presidential candidate at the party’s national convention last July, one of the many apocalyptic speeches they heard came from a man with a Dutch accent, bearing stark warnings from Europe: Geert Wilders, with his trademark bleached blonde bouffant, delivered a message that resonated with crowds accustomed to hearing Trump’s ominous worldview. “The situation in Europe today is worse than ever,” Wilders announced. “Europe, as a matter of fact, is collapsing, is imploding, is exploding. We have terror attacks by the Jihadis almost every week.” Wilders, a member of the Dutch […]

Romania’s biggest protests since the fall of communism in 1989 have been widely hailed as a victory for people power and civic activism against a corrupt elite. The weeks-long mass demonstrations, which led to Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu’s new government backing down on controversial plans to weaken anti-corruption laws, energized those previously unengaged with politics. But long-term questions remain about democracy in Romania, where street protests have become increasingly frequent as Romanians lose faith in their political parties. Protests began in January against plans by the government, which is led by the left-leaning Social Democratic Party, or PSD, to effectively […]

PARIS — France’s presidential election veered further toward chaos and uncertainty this past week, when it was announced that Francois Fillon, the embattled nominee of the conservative Republicans party, will very likely be formally investigated for hiring his wife as an assistant while he was in parliament. That alone was not illegal, but there is no evidence she did any of the work for which she was handsomely paid. Back in early February, when the scandal broke, Fillon promised to withdraw from the race if an investigation was formally opened. In response to pressure from party leaders to immediately replace […]

Editor’s note: The following article is one of 30 that we’ve selected from our archives to celebrate World Politics Review’s 15th anniversary. You can find the full collection here. On a Saturday morning in October 2016, the website of Nepszabadsag, Hungary’s leading political daily and one of its longest-running publications, went offline. Its staff had been packing all week, preparing to move to a new office building, and so they suspected a technical glitch was to blame. But they soon began to text each other frantically: Some were unable to sign into their emails, and others had received hand-delivered letters from […]

Economic disputes, trade restrictions and public tirades are not usually the stuff of strong, bilateral partnerships. But that’s the nature of relations between Russia and Belarus these days, two geopolitical partners who have experienced an unusually bitter falling-out in recent months. Mutual frustration between Russia and Belarus isn’t exactly new. In the past few years, Moscow and Minsk have traded jabs on everything from dairy products to energy prices. The Russian jabs have typically been attempts to exert political and economic pressure on Minsk to make sure it stays loyal. For Belarus’ president, Alexander Lukashenko, tensions with Moscow have provided […]