📷 Antoni Lallican, l’Ukraine au coeur ⚫ Le photographe français et collaborateur de Libération, tué par un drone dans le Donbass ce vendredi 3 octobre, documentait avec ardeur le quotidien des habitants du pays en guerre, civils comme militaires. Voir : bit.ly/4nzpDWW

#Austria second from the bottom: only 60% believe that Austria has benefitted from #EU membership. I remember well how Austria looked like in the early 1990s, in particular close to its Eastern borders, and know how it looks now. How can we fail so dramatically at telling this huge success story?!

I've been saying this for two weeks! AOC: Trump is weaker than he looks. They double down in public to overcompensate for it. They rely on the 'perception' of strength. They rely on the 'perception' of inevitability. They want you to give up! We can't give up. We have to be their consequence."

In my substack EU-Analytics, I now do monthly reviews of EU voting in the EP and the Council. September 2025 edition is here, with a closer look at voting on Ukraine, overall EP changes - with another centre-right to far-right majority - and a surprise German vote in the Council:

The economic component of establishing an authoritarian regime.

Only 38% of Serbs trust the EU. This is what happens if you lecture about values & principles while you ignore serious backsliding on the rule of law and media freedom and publicly support an autocrat for the sake of some weapons deals and the (unlikely) possibility of access to some rare earths.

With former Reform UK leader Nathan Gill admitting to accepting bribes from Oleg Voloshyn in exchange for making pro-Russian statements while serving as an MEP, @jmuellertoewe.bsky.social reports that the connections of German right-wing extremist Maximilian Krah to Russia have become obvious.

“I was not born to be a lifelong president,” said Milorad #Dodik while addressing members of the main board of the ruling #SNSD, which decided that the party will take part in early elections for president of Republika Srpska.

Fabulous result for Maia Sandu’s pro-EU PAS in #Moldova elections. With more than 99% of ballots counted, PAS leads with 49.9% and thereby will defend its parliamentary majority. Great day for 🇲🇩! Great day for 🇪🇺! Bad day for Putin‘s 🇷🇺! www.zeit.de/politik/ausl...

"If Russia can bend Moldova to its will, it will embolden similar campaigns elsewhere. Conversely, if Moldova resists, it will show that even small, vulnerable states can withstand Moscow’s playbook with the right support." Kateryna Odarchenko

🗳️ 🇲🇩 As Moldovans head to the polls today, it's worth checking this exclusive conversation with the country's president Maia Sandu on what is at stake in this election #PulseEurope. voxeurop.eu/en/maia-sand...

An immensely important day for Moldova & for Europe. Will the small state on the EU’s eastern flank hold its pro-European course, or will massive Russian disinformation and vote-buying schemes manage to bring it on a trajectory of transformation into a Russian client, wedged between 🇷🇴and🇺🇦? 🇲🇩🇲🇩🇲🇩🇲🇩🇲🇩🇲🇩🇲

In the age of AI, I wonder if the Nobel Foundation should not consider adding a Nobel Prize for courageous machines fighting for universal values. I already have a candidate:

With the 🇵🇱 presidency still in PiS hands, it is very difficult to resolve the mess in Poland's judiciary system, with hundreds of judges appointed by an unconstitutionally formed body, a constitutional court that was captured by PiS through illegitimate means ... The CJEU better speed up ...

The harassment of @panayote.bsky.social of the Greek Helsinki Monitor must stop. For years he has been the target 🎯 of the authorities. He is punished for defending European values. @ec.europa.eu @europarl.europa.eu @eucopresident.consilium.europa.eu should speak out

Great! Friedrich Merz has called on the EU to use frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine’s war effort, arguing the move could unlock a €140bn loan for Kyiv for military equipment and show “staying power” against Russian aggression. Huge blow for Putin! www.ft.com/content/3ac0...

In Serbia, women have been involved in all aspects of the student-led anti-corruption movement. But in a deeply patriarchal society, being visible and speaking up means risking gender-based violence ranging from media smear campaigns to revenge porn. My story for @en.afp.com : u.afp.com/SWgD

How is NATO balancing deterrence and defense in responding to Russia’s repeated airspace violations? Read this @politico.eu article by @laukaya.bsky.social with my take ✈️ @rusi.bsky.social www.politico.eu/article/nato...

Just published, my piece on the U.S. Armenia-Azerbaijan deal and its prospects. There is a lot of hard work still to be done, I argue, but the shared coincidence of interests that neither country wants Russia as a guarantor has been transformative. www.foreignaffairs.com/armenia/unli...

What is needed: Agree on a clear course. Without delay. Communicate plainly what will follow if it happens again. And if it does, act. Words are not enough.

Maybe worth recalling "Neither Rabin nor Arafat can stop Hamas. Only the people can. But they must have something precious to defend." (Haidar Abdel-Shafi, head of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference, in 1994) 🇮🇱🇵🇸

EU members can help the UK to get a grip on the situation in the channel - taking back all irregular arrivals after a cut-off date. In exchange, the UK would take an annual contingent of asylum seekers from its EU partners. High time to act, if we don't want Farage! www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Security guarantees for #Ukraine require readiness to fight #Russia, says Finland’s president www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s... #Putinswar #Finland

🇩🇪 ‘s CDU is calling for tough measures, including the shooting down of Russian jets, in the event of a further violation of NATO airspace. “These provocations and tests by Russia will only end if we clearly respond to all military border violations.” (FP spokesperson) www.zeit.de/politik/2025...

A few drones here, a few fighter jets there … we need to come up with a clear response line, rather quickly.

G.E.R. Gedye lived in Vienna as Central Europe correspondent from 1925-1938. I had the privilege to write about his extraordinary yet forgotten book "Fallen Bastions", describing Austria's descent into dictatorship, for @datum.at. It's now also available in English: www.esiweb.org/cafe-europe/...

Welches #Europa brauchen wir? Eines, das die Gründe für das politische Wunder seit dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs versteht – und sich zu verteidigen weiß.

This is not a risk. It has already happened. We have all lost our greatest ally, the US. We cannot trust the US to come to our aid if attacked - that is as true for Kosovo as for Germany. All Europeans have to struggle now to address this challenge - best together. balkaninsight.com/2025/09/17/k...

💥The Party of European Socialists has unanimously voted to expel Slovakia’s ruling Smer party, led by PM Robert Fico. The move, to be ratified in Amsterdam Oct. 16–18, follows Fico’s meetings with Putin and with Xi and Lukashenko in Beijing in September.

#Albania just opened cluster 4 in its EU accession negotiations.

#EuropeFuture.Forum about to kick off in #Warsaw. Treacherous times - everyone is concerned, sees many challenges we are not prepared for. Yet Central Europe looks so charming and peaceful as it could not change. And yet we know there are a dozen issues which at any moment could change everything.

‘Opinion is shifting towards this idea,’ says Polish FM Sikorski on #NATO closing the sky over western #Ukraine kyivindependent.com/in-an-interv... #Russia #Putinswar

" #Moldova may be the testing ground. But #Europe is the target." 🇲🇩's president Maia Sandu spoke in the European Parliament about threats to our democracies, the tools our foes use and how to counter them. Well worth reading. presedinte.md/eng/discursu...

🇵🇱‼️🇭🇺

For 🇷🇺 foreign minister #Lavrov, high representative Christian #Schmidt is "a self-appointed 'Gauleiter'" and the state-level constitutional court is "under the control of the European Union." Full readout in Russian and English 👇 mid.ru/ru/foreign_p...

"Perhaps that is also the ultimate meaning of searching for truth in historical facts: to look at the past with an eye to the futures we want to avoid and those we hope to create." @leaypi.bsky.social in her essay about her grandmother, secret observation and dignity. www.ft.com/content/9e73...

Every Russian attack is a deliberate choice and a message: Russia does not want peace. Today’s strikes, including on a government building in Kyiv, are part of a clear pattern of escalation. We will continue to support Ukraine’s defence industry and tighten sanctions on Moscow.

#Moldova: More inside information about the Shor party's efforts to influence upcoming parliamentary #elections through paid “activists” and a coordinated disinformation campaign on social media, financed by the Kremlin. www.moldovamatters.md/p/weekly-rou...

"The reasoning is pure authoritarianism, arguing that a core principle of the US constitution, the separation of powers, should be swept aside, because all legitimate authority resides in one man alone." (@jonathanfreedland.bsky.social)

How does it go down in #Slovakia, once part of Czechoslovakia, invaded by the Soviet Union and several of its European satellites in 1968, when people have to watch their prime minister listening to such bullshit without even raising an eyebrow?

"Eighty-six percent of those who voted among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars backed the resolution, which declares "Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide..."

🇷🇺 Let's not forget Orbán’s latest snub—not for its practical impact, since it’s purely symbolic, but precisely because it would have cost him nothing. It’s a clear display of where he and his government stand morally—and with whom they choose to stand.

Our cool and crazy generation X …

People who might be comfortable with their neighbors quietly disappearing aren't always comfortable when the grotesque human rights abuses involved are made public. They don't like to imagine themselves as the bad people you make them seem like when you point out what's happening. So keep doing it.

“We cannot be subject to the will of a third country.” (@teresaribera.ec.europa.eu, EC vice-president) www.ft.com/content/010c...

"People attacking Jews.. simply for being Jews are antisemites. Those praising Hamas as freedom fighters are obviously sharing its antisemitic and genocidal creed. But people accusing Israel of war crimes against innocent Gazans are not antisemites, they are simply human." www.ft.com/content/d871...

In his letter to the @financialtimes.com Serbian president Vučić claims that "democracies cannot rewrite electoral timetables ... Doing so would be destabilising, costly, and harmful". That's rich given that he and his party have initiated 5 parliamentary elections in 9 years (2014-2023) without /1

In November 2023, a few weeks after 7 October Hamas attacks, Rashid Khalidi gave a long interview to the @newstatesman.com. Very interesting to read nearly two years later: www.newstatesman.com/internationa...

After promising more crackdowns and calling the protesters "terrorists", Serbian pdt Vučić offered a "dialogue". Meanwhile, his party's supporters are flooding social media with AI-slops and fakes, including a fabricated quote attributed to Novak Đoković. My latest: cinjenice.afp.com/doc.afp.com....