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EU 2022: COVID waves, Russia & Ukraine, and French presidential elections
Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden, shares his perspective from Europe:
Another year of the pandemic has passed. We are in a new wave in Europe, and that is dominating quite a lot of the politics of different countries.
But as we are looking ahead towards the next year, what do we see there?
We hope the pandemic will gradually fade away, but that is by no means certain. We do face a lot of worries of what's happening in the east of Europe, the intention of Russia. Will Putin really launch a major invasion of Ukraine, or a minor military operation? Or it’s just sheer blackmail under military pressure? I think the first weeks, the first months of next year will be decisive in that particular respect.
And then, the French presidential elections and a lot of atmospherics associated with that, and the French have the presidency of the European Union to the first half of the year. You will hear a lot of that, and a lot of discussions of what to do with the economic policy. What I call the rescue from the rescue. Can we get out of all of these aid packages and subsidies and exemptions for the normal rules and get back to a more competitive Europe in a global economy that is changing very fast?
So, certainly, no absence of big issues as we are preparing to celebrate the new year in Europe.
EU battles delta variant with omicron next; Sweden government turmoil
Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden, shares his perspective from Europe:
How is Europe dealing with new omicron version of the pandemic?
Well, I mean the big issue isn't really that one, the big issue if you see the havoc that is created in several European countries at the moment is the delta. The delta is making impressive strides, particularly in countries that have a slightly lower vaccination rates. So that's the number one fight at the moment. And then we must of course prepare for the omicron as well.
What's the turmoil in Sweden about governance?
Hmm, that's a long story. It goes back to a very complicated parliamentary situation and the fact that the government, the coalition government, and the arrangement that kept in place collapsed. And then we had turmoil and turmoil. And we now have, we are first female prime minister, a very weak coalition government, the budget has been dictated by the opposition. It will survive until the September election. It can't get anything done, but it will survive. And then it's going to be the September election next year that decides the governors of Sweden in the years ahead.- Hard Numbers: Dorsey resigns from Twitter, Barbados ditches the ... ›
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