In early June this year, Romanians will be summoned to polling booths for their fifth round of European Parliament elections. Voter turnout for Romania’s first three EP polls was dismal, with attendance hovering around the 30-percent mark. Add to this...
The European Union’s Mediterranean countries, which have often served as a barometer of the EU’s health in the run-up to European elections, currently find themselves accounting for five years of significant events: the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy crisis and the...
Does antisemitism have roots in Islam? In the 900th edition of Merkur, Manfred Sing looks at the historical evidence and unequivocally says no. Claims to the contrary are refuted by the long history of peaceful coexistence between Jews and Muslims...
‘Emergencies’ have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have eroded. F. Hayek The assassination attempt against Slovak prime minister Robert Fico on 15 May 2024 shocked Slovakia and attracted attention from around the world to...
As Russia presses on with its brutal invasion of Ukraine and the EU wrestles with an energy crisis, the European Union has taken visible steps to build closer ties with Central Asian countries. In 2022, the European Council president Charles...
When Jean-Claude Juncker became president of the European Commission in 2014, he declared that accession negotiations would continue over the next five years, especially with the countries of the Western Balkans, but that there would be no new enlargement before...
European elections in the Nordic countries, especially the three EU member states – Denmark, Finland and Sweden – are often viewed as an opportunity for electorates to pass judgment on their national government as well as to debate issues overshadowed...
Westsplaining emerged in the 1990s but gained visibility when Russia escalated its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Political scientists Jan Smoleński and Jan Dutkiewicz describe the phenomenon as an ‘unending stream of Western scholars and pundits’ that ‘condescend to...
(49/54) “We still take long walks together, even today. There’s a path through the forest near our house. Mitra still can’t stand the silence. She’ll walk off the path so she can hear the dry crunch of the leaves. She...
(50/54) “When I was eighty I was giving an interview on Persian television. I wanted to recite a verse, from the part of Shahnameh when Rostam selects Rakhsh as his horse. But no matter how hard I tried, I could...
