Tall story? Fury in France as Sophie la Girafe, the national toy revealed to be secretly made in China 🦒 The maker ran a ‘fake’ factory in France for years, while secretly producing the iconic toy in China. Story by Xiaofei Xu

Dialektik

"Spain’s ability to produce the bloc’s cheapest renewable energy is no longer a local success story but a geopolitical challenge to traditional Franco-German hegemony." "Berlin and Paris are now viewing Spain as a competitor in the race to become the continent’s industrial core."

Sánchez: “You may have heard that Spain is alone. They’re the same people who said that when we recognized the State of Palestine, and then others followed. “We are not alone — we are the first. Those who will end up alone are the ones defending the indefensible.”

I guess the sign is back in the window...

Habe versucht, den aktuellen Zustand der EU-Wirtschaftspolitik für die @republik.ch einzufangen. www.republik.ch/2026/02/27/w...

I understand the need for EU industrial policy, but there is a very real risk of the EU landing in the worst of all worlds by shutting off foreign competition, relaxing its own competition enforcement, gutting the ETS, and tailoring the Competitiveness Fund to its big, old corporations.

The Economist making itself look ridiculous again. 🤷‍♂️

Finally available in english and paywall-free We are sued for this article. Palantir doesn't want policymakers and decisionmakers or anyone to read this article... Streisand, Galore! 😉 www.republik.ch/2026/02/18/h...

Palantir Technologies is suing Republik Magazine over an investigation into Palantir’s activities in Switzerland, published in December 2025. The lawsuit demands a counterstatement and is currently being heard by the Zurich Commercial Court. Link in comments. #palantir #freemedia

Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir: “Palantir is here to disrupt (…) and, when it's necessary, to scare enemies and, on occasion, kill them. And we hope you're in favor of that."

« Hausaufgaben machen » ist deutsche Staatsräson. So viel Angst vor den Möglichkeiten der Politik, dass man sich an vermeintlich objektive, äussere Kriterien festklammert, welche die Hausaufgaben definieren, die die Politik abzuarbeiten hat.

Die EU-Botschafter haben soeben grünes Licht gegeben für die Bilateralen III mit der Schweiz. Offiziell bestätigt wird das am 24. Februar im Rat für Allgemeine Angelegenheiten. #SchweizEU

"Idea that VDL'd be 'v much reassured' by Rubio’s remarks-at a moment when the US has declared itself a threat to Europe-is just real boot-licking nonsense; a betrayal of European citizenry. It’s not just VDL. Elites room gave Rubio a mass standing ovation" www.un-diplomatic.com/p/bootlickin...

Beim Angriff der Küstenwache auf Geflüchtete vor #Chios mit 15 Toten gibt es erste Beweise: Laut Obduktionsbericht kein Ertrinken, sondern Tod durch Schädel-/Hirnverletzung. Anwält:innen wollen die Täter zur Verantwortung ziehen und die griechische Regierung schlägt mit einer Hetzkampagne zurück.1/3

My favourite factoid from today's EU summit so far: The Merz/Meloni/DeWever coalition that really wants to push for European competitiveness invited a large majority of member states to its pre-summit meeting, but it did not invite the most successful major EU economy of the past years: Spain.

🔥🔥🔥It's official: Der Krieg der Tech-Autoritären Oligarchie gegen die Medien hat eine neue Stufe erreicht: Palantir klagt gegen uns. Sie wollen ein Recht auf Gegendarstellung. Uns, das @republik.ch-Magazin. Ein kleines unabhängiges Schweizer Medienhaus, finanziert von Leser:innen und werbefrei.

Welcome to Count Deregula's castle

Die Zukunft alter Sorten steht auf dem Spiel Die EU will das verschachtelte Saatgutrecht vereinfachen – Fachleute kritisieren massive Einschränkungen für kleine Züchter:innen. Ein Entwurf der Staaten könnte zum Verschwinden alter Sorten führen, warnen sie. www.derstandard.at/story/300000...

Worth reading. We want long lasting competitiveness and wealth creation. We can get both, being truth to our goals and principles.

Tomorrow’s summit is a chance for EU leaders to stop chasing the wrong fixes — and finally sketch a response that matches the scale of Europe’s economic challenge. Here, lucasguttenberg.bsky.social, @sandertordoir.bsky.social and I lay out what that could look like. www.politico.eu/article/euro...

The French Haut-commissariat à la Stratégie et au Plan just released a paper calling for a 30% tariff on all imports from China. www.strategie-plan.gouv.fr/files/files/...

You'd think the whole debate around EU autonomy (especially from the US) would also trigger a rethinking about whose voices should be heard at the highest level of the Commission. Well... No.

Big step for the ECB, but also, no good reason why offering collateralised loans to other central banks had to involve so much drama - you can lend on these terms to the Sparkasse Saarbrücken, why not Banco Central do Brasil?

Meine Nachlese zum EU-Gipfel der vergangenen Woche für die @republik.ch. Die EU freut sich an ihrer neu gefundenen Stärke und Einigkeit. Bisher ist das vor allem Rhetorik. Die EU muss die neue Weltunordnung nicht nur analysieren, sondern auch darin handeln können. www.republik.ch/2026/01/29/e...

A new level of mafia statehood: if you do not give money to this person, his praetorian guard will come and terrorize you.

Please. This is absurd. Europe can certainly deter Russia and defend itself if its focused and determined. Perpetuating a sense of European helplessness may help Rutte bureaucratically but its 1. wrong 2. prevents action. 3. willfully blind: the US ain't coming to defend Europe.

Trump’s speech was perfect. It was just about confused and ambivalent enough that everyone who desperately seeks assurance that he won’t go all the way to imperial warlord subjugating Europe could take enough reassurance to not rally to a strong European response.

A year ago, President Trump gave his inauguration speech in the US Capitol rotunda. This is a part of that speech. It's almost like he was already telling the world what he wanted to do But, as so so often, when we hear uncomfortable things, we choose not to listen

Full 2025 Chinese trade data now out. Headline is clearly a historical global record $1.2 trillion surplus with the world What of Europe? 📈China's trade surplus with the EU: +18.1% 📈 with Germany: +108% 📈 with France: +23.9% 📈 with Italy: +32.6% 📈 with Netherlands: +1.4%

“X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter” Thank you FT for presenting the directors running the circus. In clown face. www.ft.com/content/ad94...

So many European nations could stop the shadow fleet (hi 🇳🇱) - and all of them should. If we would, we would suddenly have huge leverage over Russia - immediately becoming a strategic superpower in current "negotiations". Our apathy is literally Europe CHOOSING to be an irresponsible sidelined victim

Young Europeans will make Europe more united! For them, a European Army is more attractive than national armies or even NATO. That is what today’s politicians need to have in mind! ⬇️ www.politico.eu/article/unit...

Never forget

1/Leaders are abducted/allies are threatened but pundits and governments are scratching their heads on what the US is doing. Danish PM on Greenland "It makes absolutely no sense". Why? Because actors using old IR models when we need a new lens. Enter neo-royalism. abcnews.go.com/Internationa...

Brilliant thread that names and explains the new world order that Trump seeks to create.

Dieser Post vom österreichischen Bundespräsidenten ist ein tolles Beispiel für die aktuelle EU-Aussenpolitik: korrekte Analyse, völlig ungenügende Schlussfolgerung. Der erste (analytische) Satz ist korrekt. Der zweite Satz macht aber keinen Sinn, wenn man den ersten als neue Realität anerkennt.

After carefully monitoring the situation in Venezuela for the last 24 hours, the EU has found out that the water bottle of Maduro did not have the EU-regulation approved attached cap…

Nobody ever said the death throes of the fossil age would be pretty or peaceful

China hat sich in einem halben Jahrzehnt vom Importeur von Autos zum massiven Exporteur gewandelt. Aber im Autoland Nr. 1 führen wir die wirtschaftspolitische Debatte immer noch so, als wäre unser Hauptproblem zu viel Regulierung aller Art.

The problem is that pro-European parties and the EU institutions are still communicating and acting in a very US-friendly or even submissive way. So it's very unclear if they can benefit from the anti-Trump sentiment among voters.

#France has a very weak government with an uncertain future, yet it remains a dominant force in EU policy-making. How does one explain this paradox? 🇪🇺 🇫🇷 New @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social insight by @cergrant.bsky.social Read here: buff.ly/vrFwWbE

This is remarkably outspoken by EU Defence Commissioner Kubilius andriuskubilius.lt/en/what-real...

The fact that four hostile drones tried to hit Zelenskyy’s plane & it’s barely a blip in the news cycle should terrify everyone. We’ve been dragged so deep into the chaos era that an attempted strike on a world leader doesn’t even break through. When this becomes normal, the world is in real danger.

Es ist sicher nur Zufall, dass Populismus und Faschismus aufblühen, wenn in einer Marktwirtschaft der Wert des Kapitalstocks schrumpft ... Deutschland 1932/33 Italien 2010–2021 Deutschland 2024 ...

cant unsee once you get this, the only thing you want in your country is FAR more public investment

Today's migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action... (from my presentation at the IMF last week)

If I haven’t lost count entirely, this was the fourth time Europe was fooled. So yes it’s about time to finally figure out our own strategy instead of putting all energy into humouring Trump.

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1