Europe in a mess
In the midst of a pandemic and after the departure of an undisputed leader in Angela Merkel, Europe has begun a new year in which the UK’s exit is already a fact, elections loom in France, and the war in Ukraine is ongoing
The European Union has begun 2022 facing new challenges. If last year was marked by the departure of the United Kingdom, this year begins with the departure of German Chancellor Angela Merkel after 16 uninterrupted years in power. Her loss will be felt, as the veteran German leader was instrumental in helping to build and consolidate the European bloc in recent years.
With the UK gone and a new, untested chancellor in Germany, could French President Emmanuel Macron become one of Europe’s new leaders? In France, he has established himself as a strong supporter of vaccines, even threatening to make the lives of those who refuse to get inoculated impossible. Yet before Macron can hope to become the leading European political figure over the next few years, he will first have to win April’s presidential election. France’s conservative right, now led by a woman, Valérie Pécresse, threatens to overshadow Macron. A former minister of Nicolas Sarkozy, Pécresse is a strong candidate, although the field includes far-right leader Marine Le Pen (who reached the second round in the last election), and a new player, Eric Zemmour, a far-right journalist who has burst onto the scene at the head of the anti-immigration Reconquest party.
Indeed, the arrival of migrants will again be a major challenge facing Europe in coming months, with thousands knocking on the door in states like Poland and Lithuania, which have become immersed in a migration crisis caused by the mass arrival of people from Belarus, as part of its president, Alexander Lukashenko’s strategy to pressure the EU. Migrant arrivals in Europe are back to pre-pandemic levels, with the Mediterranean once again the main focus. Some 200,000 migrants and refugees arrived in EU countries in 2021, says the EU’s Frontex border agency, which also identifies the central Mediterranean area as again being the busiest route into Europe.
One of Europe’s most worrying conflicts is the seven-year-old war between Ukraine and Russia, which has intensified in recent months due to the build-up of over 100,000 Russian soldiers near the Ukrainian border. The support of US President Joe Biden for Ukraine has done little more than strain relations between Washington and Moscow. The US is a staunch ally of Ukraine and has warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that it will not allow an invasion of Ukrainian territory. Now the UK has left the EU, Ukraine is keen to join the bloc, although given the current crisis, it is something that is unlikely to happen this year.
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