The best of POLITICO’s coverage selected by Editor-in-Chief Jamil Anderlini.
By JAMIL ANDERLINI
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Dear readers,
A week is a long time in politics, as British prime ministers like to say. For the current holder of that office it must feel like an eternity. Likewise for his French pal, President Emmanuel Macron.
In the U.K., Rishi Sunak is running a re-election campaign that is a top contender for the title of most shambolic ever. From his election announcement in the rain (to the tune of “things can only get better” played by a nearby protestor to a mass exodus of MPs from his tattered Tory party to his disastrous decision to leave D-Day celebrations early to the news that Sunak’s closest parliamentary aide placed a bet on the date of an election just days before the actual announcement!
I know the people supposedly leading his re-election campaign and they are smart, sophisticated political operatives. So either he is not listening to them or they have decided to sabotage the whole thing from the inside.
Then came the news this week that former Member of the European Parliament, never-been-elected-in-his-own-country, Brexit firebrand Nigel Farage’s Reform party has overtaken Sunak’s Tory party in a poll. Check out our story and podcast on how Farage blew up the U.K. election.
Over in France, President Macron managed to find a way to make the traditionally dull but worthy European Union parliamentary election both wildly exciting and also all about him.
The decision to call a snap election in response to a surge of support for the far-right in France is a high-stakes gamble but really quite typical of the magnificent mind games of Monsieur Macron! (trademarked).
I’ve spent a bit of time with the French president and his entourage and he is a genuinely fascinating character. One of my colleagues described him as an example of the “uncanny valley” — the feeling of unease we get when robots or androids closely resemble humans but aren’t quite realistic enough. That is a good description of what it’s like to be around him — it’s as if he is a very smart, futuristic robot simulating a real person.
That seems to be how much of the French electorate feels about him too. Even his own party is trying to convince him not to campaign on their behalf in the upcoming election he announced without warning them.
His electoral gamble may still pay off since most of the rest of the French political class seem to have been studying hard at the Rishi Sunak School of Political Campaigning.
Macron also comes across as deeply lonely and incredibly narcissistic, a problem exacerbated by the fact he is surrounded by sycophants. I had dinner this week with a psychiatrist friend who said Macron is a wonderful subject for his profession. The other person he finds intriguing, and deeply tragic, is former Belgian prime minister and outgoing European Council president Charles Michel.
It is frankly quite hard to understand the obsession Michel seems to have with exacting his revenge on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. It’s also puzzling just how bad he is at carrying it out.
All these embattled leaders met this week in Puglia for the G7 meeting. But, as we pointed out in this excellent piece, the only person whose political fortunes are currently on the rise is the hobbit-enthusiast Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
At least the traditional “family photo” from the event managed to keep Michel and von der Leyen as far away from each other as possible.
Next week, we will dive into some of the reasons traditional political elites seem to be struggling so badly and why the populist far-right is making such advances across the democratic world.
Until then, bon weekend,
Jamil Anderlini
Editor-in-chief
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Is Macron too toxic to win?
A punchy take on the most jaw-dropping news in an extraordinary week, this article leveraged our reporting muscle in Paris to capture the reaction to French President Emmanuel Macron’s shock decision to call a new election. Coming on the heels of a European Parliament election that saw a far-right surge, it set the scene for Europe’s next big political event. Read the story.
Listed: Europe’s new MEPs
If the POLITICO newsroom was tired after weeks of election reporting, you wouldn’t have known on Monday morning. Reporters set to work scouring local media and websites across the EU to pull together a roll call of the new MEPs. It was the list that everyone in Brussels was looking for — and we had it first. An epic effort! Read the story.
The 23 kookiest MEPs heading to the European Parliament
I laughed out loud when I read our listicle of the kookiest MEPs in the new European Parliament. On second reading, I found it less funny — and more like Exhibit A in the case for the prosecution against social media for ruining our democracy. Read the story.
6 lame ducks and Giorgia Meloni: Meet the G7 class of 2024
A piece that may have captured the very moment when the decline of the West gave way to its fall. How appropriate that the G7’s “last supper” summit was being hosted in Italy by the insurgent Giorgio Meloni — now we know what it feels like to have lived in both 1st- and 4th-century Rome. Read the story.
The secret arms deal that cost Putin an ally
A fantastic scoop, which revealed via a tranche of leaked documents that Belarus was actively arming Azerbaijan as the South Caucasus country waged war on Armenia. The exposé came just as Armenia announced it intended to leave Russia’s CSTO defense alliance, marking a major blow for President Vladimir Putin’s hold on the region. Read the story.
Germany launches 11th-hour bid to avert trade war with China
Our team got in front of the European Commission’s announcement of duties on Chinese electric vehicles with a well-sourced look at Germany’s 11th-hour bid to stave off the punitive tariffs sought by France. We kept our nerve after the FT, Bloomberg and other competitors reported that the duties would be “up to” 25 percent. Wrong! The highest duties came in at 38 percent. Read the story.
A triumphant right’s first post-election target: Overturning Green Deal car ban
Everyone else waited until the day after the EU election to do a “Green Deal in trouble” story. POLITICO brought readers exclusive news and reporting from the night of the results from inside the European Parliament, including exclusive news of the first post-election pledge from EPP boss Manfred Weber to ditch a 2035 ban on traditional car sales. Read the story.
YOUR WEEKEND PLAYLIST
EU Confidential: Macron challenges French voters and spooks Brussels
As the EU comes to terms with its new (sort of) political reality following last weekend’s European Parliament election, France is already back in campaign mode — preparing for snap elections called unexpectedly by President Emmanuel Macron. The French president dissolved the National Assembly in response to the massive success of the far-right National Rally in the European election (and the poor showing of his own Renaissance party). Host Sarah Wheaton and her colleagues discuss Macron’s shock decision and whether his gamble can pay off. She’s joined by senior Paris correspondent Clea Caulcutt, politics reporter Victor Goury-Laffont, and POLITICO’s editor-at-large Nick Vinocur. The team also looks at how the political earthquake in Paris is reverberating in Brussels and whether it will affect the ongoing race for the EU’s top jobs. Listen to the episode.
Westminster Insider: Inside Nigel Farage’s Reform party
As Reform has nosed ahead of the Conservatives in the polls, Aggie Chambre goes inside Nigel Farage’s party and asks if he could actually achieve his takeover of British politics. Starting in January, when Aggie first asks Farage if he’s planning to return to frontline politics, she tracks the party’s journey from small start-up to a shock poll putting it ahead of the Conservatives. In February, she hears from the Wellingborough candidate Ben Habib about the progress he has made in selling Reform on the street. With material spanning months and with help from shunted aside leader Richard Tice, the party’s only London Assembly member and pollster Alex Wilson and Farage himself, Aggie tells the story of how Farage threw a grenade into the U.K. election, and looks at their electoral chances on July 4. Listen to the episode.
Power Play: Don’t abandon the center, warns UK chancellor
It takes a brave — some may say reckless — leader to call a general election when trailing in the polls by 20 percent. With three weeks to go to polling day on July 4, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s gamble looks like it will backfire, possibly spectacularly so, with perilous consequences for the country’s oldest political party, the Conservatives. For one of the most powerful members of his Cabinet, the Chancellor — Britain’s top finance minister — Jeremy Hunt, it means a fight for his political life. Host Anne McElvoy joins him on the campaign trail in his Surrey constituency, a place that used to be rock-solid territory for the Conservatives. Hunt concedes that voters feel “battered” by the cost of living crisis and “quite understandably hold the guys at the top to account.” Listen to the episode.
DECLASSIFIED
Read this week’s Declassified column
Caption competition
“Looking forward to having the summer off? Me too.”
Can you do better? Email [email protected] or on Twitter @pdallisonesque
Last week we gave you this photo:
Thanks for all the entries. Here’s the best from our postbag — there’s no prize except for the gift of laughter, which I think we can all agree is far more valuable than cash or booze.
“And to mark my imminent alliance with the far right, I hereby rename the Black Forest the All-White Wood,” by Tom Morgan.
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Source link : https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/politico-confidential/a-sorry-week-for-europes-embattled-leaders/
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Publish date : 2024-06-15 08:09:16
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