Joel Schalit
Trans-Europe Express: 5 Star fails on immigration
It was a wipeout. Failing to win a single contest in 1,004 local elections in Italy on Sunday (11 June), Beppe Grillo’s 5 Star Movement was quickly assigned to the list of declining populist parties that began with Geert Wilders’ defeat in March’s Dutch poll.
Trans-Europe Express live
Sent out every Friday at noon, TEE gives you an insider's view of the most important coverage from across the Euractiv Media Network, its Media Partners and much more. Read and connect the local to the global in European politics.
Trans-Europe Express: Orbán’s Trump fetish backfires
Viktor Orbán must be feeling especially stupid right now. Following Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the Hungarian leader’s embrace of the US president’s 2016 victory appears increasingly misguided.
Trans-Europe Express: NATO summit to get a taste of ‘America First’
As NATO leaders prepare to meet next week in Brussels, US President Donald Trump will likely ruffle a few feathers if he brings the ‘America first’ dialectic into the meeting and wreaks havoc within the Alliance.
Trans-Europe Express: An EU view on World Press Freedom
In honour of World Press Freedom Day (2 May), Trans-Europe Express asked journalists from the EURACTIV Network to comment on Reporters Without Borders’ 2017 Press Freedom Index.
Trans-Europe Express: Holocaust Remembrance Day in Germany
It isn’t exactly an official holiday. But, for Israeli expats who live in Germany, it often feels like Yom Ha Shoah (“Holocaust Remembrance Day”) is observed here, too.
Trans-Europe Express: Playing the proxy, St. Petersburg and the Syrian chemical attack
At first, the Russian approach was to admit to everything. Well, almost. Following the first reports of the Syrian chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday, the defence ministry appeared almost too willing to confirm what happened.
Trans-Europe Express: England’s dreaming
“EU policy at work.” Superimposed over a photograph of a hardhat-wearing worker sitting on the pavement, a begging cup placed in the foreground, the message could not be any clearer.
Trans-Europe Express: Terror and the Rome Declaration: Westminster and beyond
It’s as though Europe was at war. What kind of war, it’s hard to tell. On the one hand, there’s Russia and its hybrid conflicts in Ukraine, Georgia and just about everywhere else, in one form or another.
Trans-Europe Express: Erdogan finds religion: Hailing Europe’s Islamic community
His focus on fascism was suspicious. What experience did Turks, in the Netherlands and Germany, have with the Third Reich that could compare with what other minority groups experienced during WWII?
Trans-Europe Express: The charge of fascism – Erdogan vs Germany
Normally, the accusation is reversed. Erdogan undoubtedly knew that when he accused Germany on Sunday of "fascist actions" typical of the Nazi era, for cancelling rallies to drive support for an April referendum granting himself broad new powers.
Trans-Europe Express: Going Dutch – The Geert Wilders conundrum
Don’t let the numbers fool you. Following several months of predictions that the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) would win the 15 March elections, Prime Minister Mark Rutte's conservative VVD party this week pulled ahead, by less than 1% of the vote.
Trans-Europe Express: National Front Multiculturalism
Marine Le Pen in Lebanon? The idea is almost preposterous.
Trans-Europe Express | Soros: Return of the scapegoat
If his name were Bill Gates, he’d be treated differently. But, after decades of serving as a scapegoat for conspiracy theorists, the former György Schwartz, AKA Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros, must be used to it by now.
Trans-Europe Express: Polish democracy
The first news reports didn’t reveal much. The two governments had agreed to ‘mend fences’, and engage in closer cooperation. But otherwise, leaving the impression that the German chancellor’s visit to Warsaw on Tuesday hadn’t gone too well, and that spin control was in effect.
Trans-Europe Express: 1989 (Slight return)
Putin couldn’t have scripted it better. Twenty-seven years after the end of communism, Romanians had taken to the streets again, this time, to protest against a democratically elected government in the European Union.
Trans-Europe Express: Refugees forever
The refugee problem won’t go away. No matter how hard populists try to put up walls and seal off borders, they keep on coming.
A letter to Angela Merkel from a Berlin Jew
Alternative für Deutschland’s startling second-place in Sunday’s election in Mecklenburg-Pomerania (4 September) has sent shockwaves throughout Germany. The consequences are particularly concerning for the country’s minorities. Joel Schalit writes to Angela Merkel about how to repair the damage.
US moves nuclear weapons from Turkey to Romania
EXCLUSIVE/ Two independent sources told EURACTIV.com that the US has started transferring nuclear weapons stationed in Turkey to Romania, against the background of worsening relations between Washington and Ankara .
ISIS in Würzburg
Following an axe attack on a Bavarian commuter train on Monday (18 July) by an Afghan asylum seeker claiming allegiance to ISIS, Germany’s news media were awash with reports that the terrorist organisation had finally staged a successful attack. EURACTIV.com news editor Joel Schalit, was almost there.
Nice through Israeli eyes
As though on cue, Israelis are always quick to offer advice to Western allies following an Islamist terrorist attack. After Nice, EURACTIV.com News Editor Joel Schalit muses on why they do it, and what can be really learned from Israel.
Post-Colonial Brexit Blues
The anti-colonial rhetoric used by Brexit campaigners was uniquely familiar to surviving subjects of the British empire, and their children. Joel Schalit reflects on the memories it raised for him as an Israeli, and the son of one of the country's founding families.
AfD lashes out at Özil
His national credentials are indisputable. Named ‘best German abroad’ in January by football tabloid Kicker, it was the fifth such crowning for the Ruhr-born midfielder, following four consecutive years as Germany’s player of the year.
The AfD’s ‘perjury’ problem
Sometimes an accusation is all that’s required. Under investigation on Wednesday (25 May) for lying under oath to the Saxon state parliament, for Frauke Petry’s critics the allegation could not have been more apt. Suspected of covering up loans made to her Alternative fuer Deutschland party, the right-wing politician could face up to five years in prison for perjury.