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    Tony Barber

    European Comment Editor

    Tony Barber is European Comment Editor of the Financial Times. He is a former foreign correspondent in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland, the former Soviet Union, the US and the former Yugoslavia.

    In 2012 he was awarded the Medal of Gratitude by the Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk in recognition of his work in support of freedom and democracy in Poland. He wrote the introduction to Mud Sweeter Than Honey, a book on communist Albania by the author Margo Rejmer.

    Email Tony Barber @TonyBarber8  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

    Add to myFT Digest

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    • Saturday, 25 November, 2023
      Europe Express
      Populists seek dividends from a climate change backlash

      Hard-right parties make gains in Europe by exploiting fears that incomes and ways of life are under threat

      Defaced election campaign posters in Kaufbeuren for Germany’s Green Party. The red lettering reads ‘AFD’, the name of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, ahead of the regional election in Bavaria last month
    • Friday, 24 November, 2023
      FT News Briefing podcast12 min listen
      What the Dutch far-right win means for the EU

      Record net migration to the UK post-Brexit

    • Thursday, 23 November, 2023
      Instant InsightDutch election
      Far-right Dutch victory puts European liberal democracy on defensive

      Geert Wilders’ success will make it harder for EU to forge common stances on migration, Ukraine and enlargement

      Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Freedom party (PVV)
    • Thursday, 16 November, 2023
      FT SeriesBest books of the year 2023
      Best books of 2023 — History

      Tony Barber selects his must-read titles

      Montage of book covers
    • Sunday, 12 November, 2023
      Serbia
      Serbia is a poor fit for EU enlargement plans

      Democratic backsliding and a foreign policy close to Russia cast doubt on whether Belgrade really wants to join the club

      Aleksandar Vucic sitting at his desk looking down at documents
    • Saturday, 11 November, 2023
      Europe Express
      EU and Russia square up over Georgia Premium content

      Brussels recommends candidate status for a south Caucasus state where Moscow’s influence remains strong

      Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili addresses a rally in Tbilisi after the European Commission announced its recommendation that member states should grant Georgia candidate status
    • Tuesday, 7 November, 2023
      The best books of the week
      The Revolutionary Temper — what drove the French to overthrow the monarchy?

      Robert Darnton digs deep into 18th-century France to find the roots of the political unrest that culminated in 1789

      An engraving shows people gathered by a tree. Some hold telescopes or books, some chat. In the centre stands a woman in elaborate 18th-century dress
    • Saturday, 4 November, 2023
      Europe Express
      New German party defies conventional labels Premium content

      An already fragmented political landscape is bracing for the arrival of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance

      Sahra Wagenknecht
    • Saturday, 28 October, 2023
      Europe Express
      War exposes cracks in European foreign policy Premium content

      Disputes among governments and in societies as well as quarrels in Brussels disrupt the quest for a united front

      A pro-Palestinian protest in Barcelona, Spain
    • Saturday, 28 October, 2023
      ObituaryNatalie Zemon Davis
      Natalie Zemon Davis, pioneer of microhistory, 1928-2023

      Her groundbreaking work moved beyond queens and kings to recover the lost voices of people on society’s margins

    • Saturday, 21 October, 2023
      Europe Express
      Dismantling illiberalism in Poland Premium content

      A new government will have its work cut out to roll back the rightwing nationalist capture of the state

      Donald Tusk does a peace sign
    • Wednesday, 18 October, 2023
      European Union
      History casts a long shadow over EU’s enlargement plans

      Disputes over national identities and minorities are emerging as an obstacle to the bloc’s expansion in eastern Europe

      A depiction of Alexander the Great in the Battle of Issus
    • Saturday, 14 October, 2023
      Europe Express
      Turkey’s republic enters its second century Premium content

      Legacies of Kemal Atatürk era resonate in the age of strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

      People shopping in Istanbul
    • Saturday, 7 October, 2023
      Europe Express
      Ageing Europe tries to boost birth rates Premium content

      Pronatalist policies in countries such as Poland and France have mixed results as governments seek to fill labour shortages

      Two elderly women walk along a street in Altdoebern, Germany
    • Saturday, 30 September, 2023
      Europe Express
      Battling corruption in Ukraine Premium content

      Postwar reconstruction and EU membership will depend on overcoming a decades-long legacy of graft and illegality

    • Saturday, 23 September, 2023
      ObituaryGiorgio Napolitano
      Giorgio Napolitano, Italian statesman, 1925-2023

      The first former communist to serve as head of state, he played an indispensable role in overcoming the 2011 eurozone crisis

    • Saturday, 23 September, 2023
      Europe Express
      A tug of war in Poland and Slovakia Premium content

      Elections in the two central European countries will test support for Ukraine and measure the appeal of illiberalism

      People in a rally near the Slovak National Uprising square under the slogan “For a Decent Slovakia”, against corruption and to pay tribute to murdered Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova
    • Saturday, 16 September, 2023
      Europe Express
      Rethinking neutrality in Europe Premium content

      Austria, Ireland, Malta and Switzerland will probably not join Nato but changes in defence and security policies are coming

      Swiss federal councillor Viola Amherd, Austrian defence minister Klaudia Tanner and German defence minister Boris Pistorius
    • Saturday, 2 September, 2023
      Europe Express
      Reviving the German economy Premium content

      The ‘sick man of Europe’ label made its debut in 1998 but it seems overdone to apply it today

      Ben Hickey illustration of a brown bear with one of its hind legs caught in a steel bear trap - howling in pain.
    • Wednesday, 30 August, 2023
      Russian economy
      Russia still has options to sustain its creaking war economy

      The Kremlin’s apparent aim is to tough it out and see if the political tide turns in the US elections

      People visit the Victory Museum in Moscow. Russia displays many classic symptoms of a wartime economy, such as inflation, labour shortages, rising government expenditure and deficit financing
    • Saturday, 26 August, 2023
      Europe Express
      Scandals fuel Austria’s far right Premium content

      The rise and fall of Sebastian Kurz is one symptom of a political system in deep trouble

      Sebastian Kurz and Viktor Orbán
    • Wednesday, 23 August, 2023
      ReviewFT Books Essay
      The delusions that put Putin on the path to war

      In two piercing accounts, Sergei Medvedev and Jade McGlynn expose the manipulation of history used to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

      Vladimir Putin appears on a big screen, flanked by veterans in military uniform, to address a parade of soldiers on Moscow’s Red Square in 2021
    • Saturday, 19 August, 2023
      Europe Express
      Europe fights disinformation Premium content

      Public awareness of fake news is rising but eradicating it completely may be an unrealistic goal

      Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen
    • Saturday, 12 August, 2023
      Europe Express
      Italy’s disastrous bank tax Premium content

      The economic record of Giorgia Meloni’s government is coming under harsh and justified scrutiny

      Giorgia Meloni
    • Friday, 11 August, 2023
      Russian politics
      Russia provides an updated lesson in distorting history

      A new school textbook forms part of a wider effort to make society proud of a state-designed version of the past

    Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

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