President
Emmanuel Macron’s election in France and the likely continuation of
Angela Merkel’s chancellorship in Germany are dramatically at odds with
developments in the rest of Europe, which has become increasingly
unstable and unpredictable. One wonders if the European Union’s hard
Franco-German core is becoming too hard for the rest of the bloc. If so,
those who dream of “ever closer” European integration may have to
settle for a modestly enlarged Franco-German axis.
Europe today is
being torn apart by centrifugal forces, including Catalonia’s
secessionist movement and the more muted push for autonomy in the
Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto. Right-wing populism is in power
in Hungary and Poland, and may …read more
Source: Gulf times
