Can I just stop you there?

"it is increasingly important that Europe, given Washington’s progressive disengagement from the continent, thinks hard about how it can win the fragile peace, should a cease-fire be reached." t.co/KQFBeHTNNF

When you're just not picking up on the signals

The AfD now enjoys a substantial and growing polling lead over the CDU/CSU.

Not sure who needs to hear about this, but the new EP from The Field is fantastic. thefield.bandcamp.com/album/now-yo...

En route to Prague for @globsec.org. Moderating two panels tomorrow: a debate on NATO's future, and a discussion with the foreign ministers of Germany, Poland and Hungary. I think both streamed live. Say hi if you're around.

Having established a coalition to monitor a ceasefire that doesn't exist, Europe is now discussing the identity of a "Putin-whisperer" to negotiate with a partner that has demonstrated no interest in negotiating. www.ft.com/content/1dc0...

Unexpected highlight of a Saturday in Hamburg: the Verner Panton-designed canteen for Der Spiegel, preserved and lovingly reassembled in a nearby museum when the magazine moved. Imagine checking page proofs in here.

Every few years I am allowed to write pieces like this www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

Went raving and wrote it up www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

It's quite something that it remains controversial (check out the comments) among some Germans for the country's paper of record to publish an interview with a man who has every chance of becoming French president in a year's time. Several German papers will not even do this with leaders of the AfD.

So it was Obama's fault we never heard the end of this

Props to anyone maintaining the patience required to keep up with this

New polling from the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt puts the AfD within a couple of pp of an absolute majority. Election in early September.

One year in, there is already a stench of death hanging over Friedrich Merz's chancellorship. Things can't go on like this. My anniversary piece www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

With his coalition fraying and Germans in restive mood, a tussle with Trump is exactly what Friedrich Merz did not need. Quick take from me www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

Masterminded by @mattfavas.bsky.social, our briefing this week on oil markets, what is yet to come and how countries are responding. (With a small contribution from me.) www.economist.com/briefing/202...

Not saying Trump won't pull troops out of Germany, despite the harm it would do to US power projection. But remember this? www.bbc.com/news/article...

Aggregate polling now gives AfD a 2.5pp lead over the Union - highest ever, I think.

I am extraordinarily jealous of my colleague @jonfasman.bsky.social who got to interview the great Steve Reich to mark his 90th birthday. On our daily podcast The Intelligence t.co/v0KYpXhb6V

Today Germany published a military strategy—the first in postwar history—designed to steer the development of a Bundeswehr into which vast sums are being poured. Yesterday @shashj.bsky.social and I discussed it with Carsten Breuer, Germany's top soldier. My report: www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

I am once again begging American conservatives who have Big Thoughts on how European leaders should tackle populists to pay attention to what is *actually happening* on migration policy, rather than meme themselves into seeing US '23 conditions everywhere all the time www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/o...

Sounds bad for Mandelson. Maybe he can find a job at the North American Treaty Organization.

Magyar needs the EU but the EU needs Magyar, too. And in this mutual dependency, neither should lose sight of the rule of law. That's what I'm arguing in this @financialtimes.com op ed www.ft.com/content/8800...

I steped briefly back into Charlemagne's robes this week (@spignal.bsky.social is on holiday) to explain why, amid all the Magyar-mania, the EU risks ignoring some important lessons it ought to take from its long Orban nightmare. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

What a bizarre take on the ejection of a prime minister who just served 16 years in office!

Am gratefully accepting reading/podcast/whatever recommendations on all matters Hungary and Europe, including Ukraine aid, RRF funds, Article 7 RoL stuff, the whole kaboodle. Here or DM.

Most Syrians in Germany are here to stay. My piece this week. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

He is Risen

I have a piece in the new edition on the coming Zeitenwende for the BND, Germany's foreign intelligence service. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

Short piece from me on the SPD's electoral disaster and its leader's decent reform pitch yesterday.

This is a phenomenal piece of journalism by my colleagues at @economist.com - deep reported detail on how Iran is now being run that I haven't seen anywhere else: www.economist.com/middle-east-...

war_iran_final-blow_v1.pdf war_iran_final-final-blow-v2.pdf war_iran_final-blow-no edits.pdf war_iran_final-blow-no edits (1).pdf war_iran_final-blow-no edits (1) APPROVED.pdf IRANWARPLANSFINALFINALFINAL.pdf IRANWARPLANSFINALFINALFINAL (1).pdf

Baden-Württemberg is not about to become one giant Detroit. But ahead of what looks like a nail-biting election on Sunday, The Länd is certainly consumed with economic anxiety. My report from Stuttgart and Hohenlohe. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

The worst thing about working at the Economist is the appalling clickbait headlines

Can't wait for Janan's nuclear take on this

OK we get it, Trump contradicts himself. He is large, he contains multitudes

I knew you'd all come round in the end.

The American mind cannot comprehend a country where neither the leading party nor its chief rival sit on the left

Good Economist piece on Merz tough China trip. "For not only has China’s market begun to dry up for Germany, big chunks of German industry now regard China as a direct threat to their interests.." With a favourite chart of Setser and mine. China's net car exports now dwarf even peak Germany. 1/

"The central front of our China policy is at home in Europe". Excellent piece by @tomnuttall.bsky.social ahead of German chancellor's first China trip.

Next week Friedrich Merz will embark on his first visit to China since taking office. The vibes, as they say, will be off. My piece on a relationship that has become a lot more complicated in recent years. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

EU's flagship piece of industrial-policy legislation turning into a bit of a clownshow.

If a German public broacaster was deliberately seeking to bolster the accusations of bias and unprofessionalism levelled by its far-right critics, it might well do something like this. www.stern.de/politik/deut...

Skipped MSC this year. This is where all the cool kids are, anyway.

This, basically. What is new is the tone from some European leaders. Witness Friedrich Merz - barely a trace of transatlanticism in the speech from the former chair of the Atlantik-Brücke. And some biting, if belated, responses to Vance's broadside last year, echoed later by Emmanuel Macron.

It would be very funny for a European newspaper to report on a Trump speech and call him an "American official".

This week I ask if Germany can rearm its way to economic growth. Tl;dr - jein. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

This is an odd, or perhaps telling, way to describe a set of democratically elected national politicians. www.ft.com/content/4551...

In the "fuck you, Europe!" stakes, Marco Rubio's travel plans after Munich are not quite at Vance-meeting-Weidel levels. But they're not far off. t.co/ddDlUoe2Wu