If you've been paying attention to far-right circles in Europe you'll have noticed the growing prominence of the term "remigration". I dug into its background, interrogated its meaning, interviewed its advocates and looked at the dilemma it poses for the AfD. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

God I love the British public in one of its periodic fits of morality

File under, we never quite know what's coming next. One of my favourite embassy reports. The UK ambassador in East Berlin reporting in after the fall of the Wall...

RIP Sly Dunbar. Testament to his (and Robbie Shakespeare’s) skills that this highly eccentric Serge Gainsbourg number still somehow works. youtu.be/egHsU2zBgKI?...

hello Mr Vice President this is your economist speaking I am advising you to keep using this metaphor

“The sirens flashing red all over Europe have been turned off,” but leaders are now reckoning with the fallout from the Greenland crisis, Tom Nuttall tells “The Intelligence”. Listen now

Who wore it better?

Keir Starmer seems to be killing any hopes that Trump's aggression on Greenland might drive a UK-EU rapprochement. EU pressing on with €93bn retaliation, considering anti-coercion instrument. Starmer: "A trade war is in no one's interest".

Part of the MAGA campaign for Greenland is to make this about Denmark, rather than NATO. Allies have every reason to counter this pernicious narrative

If you're enjoying Denmark's foreign minister with a cigarette, have you seen him with a pipe?

Punting Greenland's security to a working group and sending a symbolic troop deployment is probably the best Europe can do, for now. But in time a more considered strategy may be needed to counter Trump's covetousness. My take on Europe's Greenland options www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

Spotting a factual error in the New Yorker always brightens one's day.

V good Greenlandic fact www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

FT always takes bylines to the next level

I'm joining the BBC World Service Weekend show for the next couple of hours. Tune in!

2026 will certainly be interesting. But Germans overdo it with this Superwahljahr thing. There seems to be one every other year.

Perhaps a little early to call it for 2026, but I cannot imagine seeing a better film this year than In die Sonne Schauen

This podcast on the life and works of Fela Kuti is absolutely brilliant. Cannot recommend it highly enough. www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dol...

A few days after I moved to Los Angeles, Philip Seymour Hoffman cycled up to the Venice cafe I was in. Two days later saw Bill Clinton getting mobbed by fans in a Santa Monica bookshop. Assumed that was life in LA, but then saw no more celebs in two years except Anne Hathaway in a bar one night.

The brief annual window in which fireworks may be legally purchased in Germany has begun. My preview of the most wonderful debate of the year. www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

I love a bit of Bloomberg shade www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

A few quick thoughts about this morning's decision. Don't believe the spin from various Russians & others: it's a big deal. The EU has now unambiguously demonstrated that it is able and willing to provide the external financial support Ukraine needs, for as long and as much as it takes. (1/N)

My take on the EU's through-the-night summit to help Ukraine. The main thing is €90bn will find its way to Kyiv—though not funded by Russia's frozen assets. It was a messy deal, from which recriminations will ensue. But Europe got there (mostly) in the end. www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

It's amazing what turns out to be possible when you're staring into the abyss. As far as I can see Article 20, the basis for this EU decision to fund Ukraine, has previously been used for the likes of divorce law harmonisation and patents.

D-Day for Europe to shore up Ukraine funding. As EU leaders huddle in Brussels, Stephen Paduano and I analyse the reparations loan in a new piece. This is not only a "There Is No Alternative" (TINA) moment—but the financial and legal risks are also manageable. 1/ www.cer.eu/insights/ukr...

The official Berlin New Year's party is called "Yeah 2026". www.morgenpost.de/berlin/artic...

Once again, I spoke with @tomnuttall.bsky.social about the #AfD, which continues to #normalise even as it #radicalises - a dynamic we both observed at the founding event of the party's new #youthwing in Gießen. An excellent portrait, with comments by @kai-arzheimer.com and yours truly. 👇

Helpful, clarifying thread.

All members are the coalition are willing, but some are more willing than others.

Germany's #farright: normalised, professionalised, and further radicalised. Excellent portrait by @tomnuttall.bsky.social

People of the Continent, have you ever heard anyone say this?

Europe’s populist right is on the march. “The Intelligence” welcomes Sophie Pedder, Tom Nuttall and Matthew Holehouse for a deep dive into the continent’s differing movements and prospects. Listen now

Good piece on the continuing rise of the AfD in The Economist. Also cool to see some findings cited from our paper with @mbayerlein.bsky.social and Anne Metten on far-right support and industrial decline in Germany, published earlier this year. tinyurl.com/w6v62khz

Made a playlist of my fav tunes from 2025. open.spotify.com/playlist/2Hw...

That's Hungary dealt with. Now on to the final boss: Belgium.

It's taken a long time and required a lot of hard work from a lot of people, but the "they're cancelling Christmas!" culture wars have finally arrived in Germany. Hearty congrats to all involved. www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/vom-b...

Biden made fonts woke

Europol hive mind - do routine events organised by populist-right parties in any country other than Germany attract the sorts of mass protest we saw in Gießen over the weekend? I'm talking tens of thousands on the streets, huge police turnout etc rather than chucking a milkshake over Nigel Farage.

A selection of merch at today's founding congress of the AfD youth wing.

Hercules had 12 tasks. Luckily there's another very big one confronting the Belgian government!

Our new cover story is on the threat posed to German and Europe by China’s industrial model and its decision to exploit its stranglehold on chips/rare earths. Based on my reporting from Berlin and a trot around the Mittelstand in the Black Forest. economist.com/briefing/202...

Just back from a week in Israel/West Bank. Fascinating trip, tho I'll spare the world my half-baked thoughts on the Middle East. But what struck this European was how often I heard Israelis of all stripes, including avowed leftists, repeat what are here usually regarded as far-right tropes (1/3)

"lol," said the Bundesrepublik. "lmao". www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

Eurobonds for Ukraine, say we. www.economist.com/leaders/2025...

With the official prognosis giving one additional seat to PVV and one to FvD compared to the ext poll, the narrative should really not be that the Netherlands/Jetten has beaten the radical right. The far right bloc remains remarkably stable.

Absurd fragmentation of Dutch electorate means everyone can legitimately do a "why the election shows my politics are right" take - perhaps excepting the trad left there's a party of nearly every flavour that did well.

One peculiarity about being a correspondent in Germany is the regularity with which you meet Germans who are completely bemused that someone might be interested enough in their country to choose to live in and write about it.

And I hear that Merz failed to win approval for his proposed pension reform in Germany at the Western Balkans summit. Looks like it was lose-lose :(