


France’s new coalition yanks the country a step to the right
Can Prime Minister Michel Barnier bring stability?
EUROPE IS A continent of coalition governments, painful to forge and fragile to maintain. Most European politicians are familiar with their challenges. For Michel Barnier’s new French government, however, which met for its first cabinet meeting on September 23rd, this form of rule is a baffling novelty. For the first time since France’s Fifth Republic was established in 1958, the country is now run by a minority coalition government formed by rival parties that stood against each other at legislative elections. Its survival depends on keeping its lumpy mix of centrists and right-wingers together, and the opposition against it divided.
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Germany’s Social Democrats narrowly escape disaster in Brandenburg
The SPD just edges the far-right AfD in a regional election

Friedrich Merz, Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting?
He has strong odds of thrashing Olaf Scholz next year

Aland is lovely, weapon-free and too close to Russia
Finland worries the demilitarised islands could fall prey in a conflict
Europe is bidding a steady farewell to passport-free travel
Germany is the latest Schengen country to reintroduce border checks
Can a new crew of European commissioners revive the continent?
Ursula von der Leyen picks her team
Near-shoring is turning eastern Europe into the new China
With firms moving production closer to market, CEE is the place to be