A surge in far-right populism in France provoked President Emmanuel Macron into calling a high-risk national election. | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images PARIS — European elections are meant to be worthy but boring exercises in centrist coalition building. Not this time. A surge in far-right populism in France provoked President Emmanuel Macron into calling a high-risk national election that cou

VIENNA — The coup began with the sound of a doorbell. Just after 8 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2018, Austrian police Commander Wolfgang Preiszler pressed the buzzer at the headquarters of the country’s domestic intelligence service and held his ID up to the security camera. Within minutes, dozens of his colleagues armed with Glock pistols and a battering ram fanned out through the building in bullet-proof ve

“She has increasingly been behaving like a queen,” said one EU diplomat | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images BRUSSELS — For many of her international allies, Ursula von der Leyen is Mrs. Europe — a truly presidential figure who steered the bloc through the COVID-19 pandemic and kept it unified in the face of Russia’s war on Ukraine. But the German politician’s glowing reputation abroad is increasi

The European Commission will triple humanitarian assistance to Gaza | Mohammed Faeq/AFP via Getty Images The European Commission is tripling its humanitarian assistance to Gaza as the bloc comes under mounting pressure to present a coherent policy on the Israel-Gaza crisis. The EU’s executive arm will increase its humanitarian funding to Gaza from €25 million to €75 million. The announcement was m

Wednesday saw a rush of military promises made to Kyiv | Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP via Getty Images BRUSSELS — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Brussels on Wednesday to discover a Europe no longer completely focused on the war Russia has unleashed on his country, but he's rolling with the punches. He insisted that there was no danger of Israel crowding Ukraine out of the limelight, and