quarta-feira, 6 de maio de 2026
How the Fight Over Israel Is Playing Out Inside MAGA
How the
Fight Over Israel Is Playing Out Inside MAGA
The war
in Iran has added to a tectonic shift in public opinion — a bipartisan swing
away from Israel. Some on the far-right are fighting to keep President Trump’s
movement aligned with the Jewish state.
Laura
Loomer, the far-right media figure, has emerged as one of the president’s most
aggressive, pro-Israel enforcers.
Anton
Troianovski
By Anton
Troianovski
Reporting
from Monticello and Pensacola, Fla.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/us/politics/israel-maga-republicans.html
May 6,
2026
On the
campaign trail in Florida farm country, a long-shot Republican candidate for
governor is selling $40 T-shirts that say “No American should die for Israel.”
A few
hours west, Laura Loomer, the far-right media figure, is preparing a pitch to
donors to help fund a new outlet: a weekly newsletter taking on the right-wing
podcasters critical of Israel.
Rarely is
foreign policy a major political issue in a midterm election year. But the war
in Iran has helped turn the U.S. relationship with Israel into a marquee topic
among Republicans, pushing allies of President Trump like Ms. Loomer to
escalate their attacks on conservative critics of the relationship and creating
new fault lines on America’s far right.
“It’s
like a psychosis. It’s literally a psychosis,” Ms. Loomer said in an interview
last week, referring to the turn against Israel among some conservatives. “It
really is Israel derangement syndrome.”
Ms.
Loomer, who gained prominence last year after pushing Mr. Trump to fire White
House officials she deemed disloyal, is emerging as one of the president’s most
aggressive, pro-Israel enforcers. Her attacks on what used to be her fellow
allies of Mr. Trump are evidence of the urgency that some in the president’s
camp — and supporters of a close relationship with Israel — see in seeking to
blunt the influence of right-wing critics of the Jewish state.
On her X
account with nearly two million followers, Ms. Loomer refers to Israel as “our
greatest ally” and discloses purported personal details about prominent critics
of Israel and Mr. Trump.
Ms.
Loomer said she has been honing her pitch to donors as she has prepared to roll
out her newsletter, The Loomer Rumor, which she said was meant to showcase her
“opposition research” while targeting right-wing figures critical of Israel — a
group that she calls the “Woke Reich.” Its best-known voice is Tucker Carlson,
who has broken with Mr. Trump over the war in Iran. Mr. Carlson has accused
Israel of pushing Mr. Trump into war, which he says makes the president a
“slave” to foreign interests.
The war
has added to a tectonic shift in public opinion on American foreign policy that
began with the Gaza war — a bipartisan swing away from Israel. It is a change
that has already divided Democrats and is now penetrating a Republican Party
whose leaders, buoyed by Evangelical voters, long positioned it as pro-Israel.
And it is palpable even in Florida, where Ms. Loomer lives and support for
Israel runs so deep that the legislature last year lifted credit-rating limits
to allow local governments to buy more Israeli bonds.
“It’s
been very shocking,” said Chase Tramont, a Republican member of the Florida
House of Representatives. “You have so many younger folks on the right that are
actually singing the same tune that the radical left is singing.”
Mr.
Tramont, a pastor, described U.S. support for Israel as “grounded in historical
precedent, biblical values and America First policies.” He introduced a bill
last year to require Florida schools and state agencies to refer to the
Israeli-occupied West Bank as “Judea and Samaria,” the biblical names for the
region that are widely used in Israel.
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But
staunchly pro-Israel politicians like Mr. Tramont, 46, are starting to seem
like a minority among younger Republicans. A Pew Research Center survey in
March found that 57 percent of Republicans under 50 have an unfavorable view of
Israel, up from 50 percent last year and 35 percent in 2022, and about the same
share as Americans overall. Among Republicans 50 and older, 75 percent still
support Israel, a figure that has barely budged since 2022.
The
result is a contrast between the Trump administration’s Israel-aligned foreign
policy and the trajectory of public opinion on the right. The five-week bombing
of Iran this year was the first time the United States and Israel launched and
fought a war side by side. And yet in the podcast “manosphere” that widely
endorsed Mr. Trump in 2024, the loudest voices are critics of Israel like Mr.
Carlson.
“The
great irony in this is that you have the U.S. and Israel jointly conducting a
war,” said Eliot A. Cohen, a senior State Department official in the George W.
Bush administration and a longtime proponent of a close relationship with
Israel. “The thing that’s bizarre here is that the administration is not
actually setting the tone in some ways.”
Mr. Cohen
is among those who see the shift against Israel as driven, in part, by
ingrained antisemitism. “There always was an anti-Israel and also antisemitic
part of the Republican Party,” he said.
Mr.
Carlson said on his show last week that for American politicians, “love for
Israel is accompanied by contempt for the United States, maybe even hatred for
the United States.” He rejects accusations of antisemitism, arguing that his
critique of Israel is driven by his view of U.S. interests. In Florida, he has
praised James Fishback, 31, as a Republican contender in the state governor’s
race.
At a
campaign stop last Wednesday in the small farming town of Monticello, outside
Tallahassee, Mr. Fishback railed against gun laws and foreign workers. He said
Americans should accept “several mass shootings a year” as the cost of their
gun rights, and called the H-1B skilled worker visa program a “scam” that he
would seek to end.
But the
T-shirt he hawked at a coffee shop was the one saying that no American should
die for Israel. Sean Lozano, the deputy campaign manager, said it was their
best seller.
“It does
very well with the younger crowd,” he said.
Mr.
Fishback is in the single digits in primary polls and has faced accusations,
which he denies, from a former fiancée who has said their relationship began
while she was still a minor. But his ability to generate buzz among young
people has shown how Israel has the potential to emerge as a campaign issue,
especially amid evidence that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel
helped pull Mr. Trump into the unpopular war on Iran.
In
Monticello, Mr. Fishback drew applause when he promised to pardon a Florida
International University student arrested after what her supporters said was a
joke about Mr. Netanyahu bombing a university event. Answering a question about
traffic cameras, Mr. Fishback ended with warning of a future in which
government surveillance “has flagged you for making an antisemitic remark in
the park.” He said Florida should divest from its Israeli bonds because
taxpayer money should not “be sent to any foreign country.”
“That’s
not antisemitism,” Mr. Fishback said. “That is just calling it as it is.”
Several
older people in the audience, who all declined to give their full names, said
they were put off by Mr. Fishback’s fixation on Israel. One 70-year-old woman,
who described herself as a born-again Christian, said that she loved Mr.
Netanyahu and that the United States needed to walk hand in hand with Israel.
But many
of the younger attendees, mostly men, said they had come to see Mr. Fishback
because of his views on Israel and his opposition to the Iran war. A university
student, Garrett Wilson, 20, said he broke with Mr. Trump’s foreign policy
after the assassination of Charlie Kirk and referred to the false conspiracy
theories that Israel may have had something to do with his death. (Mr. Fishback
said those accusations were “unsubstantiated by the evidence.”)
“We
thought it was going to be America First,” said Chris Lahey, 39, a nurse
paramedic. “He turned on everybody, he turned on his voters” in favor of a
“foreign power.”
In an
interview, Mr. Fishback said the attacks by Ms. Loomer on critics of Israel
could “destroy the Republican Party.” Ms. Loomer said that figures like Mr.
Fishback and Mr. Carlson could suppress Republican turnout enough to bring
about Democratic control of Congress, Mr. Trump’s re-impeachment and “the
ultimate communist Islamic takeover of America.”
But Ms.
Loomer also acknowledged that the shift in public opinion would be hard to
reverse. She said she had lost friends, like the former Trump aide Roger Stone,
because of her support of Israel. She said she told Mr. Trump about two months
ago, “You’re probably going to be the last pro-Israel president we ever have.”
“You’re
right,” she said Mr. Trump responded. A White House spokeswoman, Anna Kelly,
did not confirm that exchange, but said that Israel “has always been a great
ally to the United States” and that its forces were “incredible partners” in
the war on Iran.
Ms.
Loomer said that Israel should recognize the reality of shifting public opinion
and accept the elimination of U.S. military aid. Mr. Netanyahu himself has
vowed to cut Israel’s reliance on such aid. The current 10-year U.S. aid
package of $38 billion is set to expire in 2028.
“I don’t
foresee the G.O.P. being as explicitly pro-Israel anymore,” Ms. Loomer said.
“Whether the criticism is legitimate or not, or whether it’s foreign funded or
not, it’s there. And perception is reality.”
Anton
Troianovski writes about American foreign policy and national security for The
Times from Washington. He was previously a foreign correspondent based in
Moscow and Berlin.
‘Think before sharing,’ Giorgia Meloni says as AI-made lingerie image of her goes viral
‘Think
before sharing,’ Giorgia Meloni says as AI-made lingerie image of her goes
viral
Italian
prime minister had received wave of criticism from people who believed deepfake
pictures of her were real
Lorenzo
Tondo in Palermo
Tue 5 May
2026 17.53 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/05/giorgia-meloni-ai-generated-lingerie-image-deepfake
Italy’s
prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has criticised the circulation of AI-generated
deepfake images of her, including one depicting her in lingerie, after they
were widely shared online.
Meloni
wrote on Facebook on Tuesday: “In recent days, several fake images of me have
been circulating, generated using artificial intelligence and passed off as
real by some overzealous opponents.
“I must
admit that whoever created them … even improved my appearance quite a bit,” she
joked. “But the fact remains that, in order to attack and spread falsehoods,
people are now willing to use absolutely anything.”
In her
post, Meloni shared an AI-generated image showing her apparently dressed in
lingerie, seated on a bed – a fabrication that had gone viral and prompted a
wave of condemnation from users who believed it to be genuine.
One user
wrote: “That a prime minister should present herself in such a state is truly
shameful. Unworthy of the institutional role she holds. She has no sense of
shame.”
In her
statement, Meloni denounced what she described as a form of cyberbullying,
warning that AI-generated images were an increasingly dangerous tool capable of
misleading and harming individuals.
“The
issue goes beyond me,” she added. “Deepfakes are a dangerous tool, because they
can deceive, manipulate and target anyone. I can defend myself. Many others
cannot. For this reason, one rule should always apply: verify before believing,
and think before sharing. Because today it happens to me, tomorrow it could
happen to anyone.”
The fight
against the risks posed by AI and deepfakes has become a central plank of the
agenda of Meloni’s far-right government.
Last
September, Italy became the first EU country to approve a comprehensive law
regulating the use of AI, introducing prison terms for those who deploy the
technology to cause harm — including the creation of deepfakes — and placing
limits on children’s access.
Meloni’s
government said the legislation, aligned with the bloc’s landmark EU AI Act,
marked a decisive step in shaping how artificial intelligence was developed and
used across the country.
The law
followed a scandal over a pornographic website that published doctored images
of prominent Italian women, including Meloni and the opposition leader Elly
Schlein, which triggered outrage in Italy.
The
images – lifted from social media or public appearances and altered with
vulgar, sexist captions – were shared on a platform with more than 700,000
subscribers. Many showed female politicians across party lines, manipulated to
emphasise body parts or imply sexualised poses.
The
Italian police ordered the site to be shut down, while prosecutors in Rome
opened an investigation over alleged offences including the unlawful
dissemination of sexually explicit images (so-called revenge porn), defamation
and extortion.
Trump accuses pope of ‘endangering a lot of Catholics’ with Iran stance
Trump
accuses pope of ‘endangering a lot of Catholics’ with Iran stance
US
president directs fresh criticism at pontiff days before secretary of state
Marco Rubio’s visit to Vatican
Angela
Giuffrida in Rome
Tue 5 May
2026 13.24 BST
Donald
Trump has issued a fresh verbal attack against Pope Leo XIV, accusing the
pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because “he thinks it’s fine for
Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.
The
remarks come two days before Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meets Leo
at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump’s previous
broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the
US-Israeli war on Iran.
Speaking
to Hugh Hewitt, a prominent conservative radio talkshow host on the US-based
Salem News network, Trump said the pope “would rather talk about the fact that
it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and I don’t think that’s very good”.
“I think
he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people,” the US president
added. “But I guess if it’s up to the pope, he thinks it’s just fine for Iran
to have a nuclear weapon.”
Leo has
never said that Iran should have nuclear weapons, but has repeatedly opposed
the war on the country and the subsequent escalation of the conflict in Lebanon
and the wider Middle East, calling for ceasefires and dialogue.
Brian
Burch, the US ambassador to the Holy See, said on Tuesday that he expected a
“frank” meeting between Rubio, a Catholic, and Leo at the Apostolic Palace on
Thursday morning.
“Nations
have disagreements, and I think one of the ways that you work through those is
… through fraternity and authentic dialogue,” Burch told reporters, adding that
he thought Rubio was coming to the Vatican “in that spirit, to have a frank
conversation about US policy, to engage in dialogue”.
Burch
said he did not accept the idea that there was “some deep rift” between the US
and the Vatican, saying that Rubio was coming so that each side could “better
understand each other, and to work through, if there are differences, certainly
to talk through that”.
The trip,
which coincides with the first anniversary of Leo’s papacy, was organised after
Trump lashed out at the pope in April, calling him weak and saying he was not
doing a very good job as pontiff. Trump also shared an AI-generated image
depicting himself as Christ, before deleting it and saying it had actually been
a portrayal of him as a doctor.
Rubio
will also endeavour to patch things up with the Italian government after Trump
berated its prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, previously one of his closest
allies in Europe, for calling out his remarks against Leo, rebuking her
government for not supporting the strikes on Iran and threatening to withdraw
US troops from Italy as a result.
Rubio
will also meet the Vatican’s secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, before meeting
Meloni and the Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, on Friday morning.
The US
vice-president, JD Vance – a Catholic convert – has also criticised the pope,
saying the Vatican should “stick to matters of morality” and that Leo should be
careful when it came to talking about theology and war.
Rubio and
Vance attended the pope’s inauguration in May last year and had a private
audience with him the day after, during which they handed him an invitation
from Trump to the White House that Leo has not yet taken up.
The day so far
43m ago
17.55 BST
The day
so far
- The US president, Donald Trump, has issued a fresh ultimatum, telling Iran to accept a deal to end the war in the Middle East or face a new wave of US bombing “at a much higher level and intensity than it was before”. The social media announcement on Wednesday was the latest in a rapid series of dramatic and often contradictory changes in policy and came amid reports the US was claiming progress in stalled negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
- Trump said that it was “too soon” to consider face-to-face talks with Tehran, according to an interview with the New York Post as the US waited for a response to its proposal to end the war. Trump posted earlier on social media that the war with Iran could soon end and oil and natural gas shipments could restart.
- Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesperson of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, has poured cold water on the Axios report claiming the US and Iran were nearing a one-page memorandum to end the war, saying it was an “American wishlist [and] not a reality”. In a fiery statement on X, he said: “Americans will not gain in a lost war what they failed to achieve in face-to-face negotiations. Iran has its finger on the trigger and is ready; if they do not surrender and grant the necessary concessions, or if they or their lapdogs attempt any mischief, we will respond with a harsh and regrettable response.
- Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Wednesday that Washington was seeking Tehran’s surrender through various means, including a naval blockade. “The enemy, in its new design, is seeking, through a naval blockade, economic pressure and media manipulation, to destroy the country’s cohesion in order to force us to surrender,” Ghalibaf said in a voice message published on his official Telegram channel.
- More than 50 cargo ships have been turned back or returned to port as a result of the ongoing US naval blockade of Iran, the US military has said. The sanction remains in place despite Donald Trump pausing a naval mission to reopen the strait of Hormuz and free stranded vessels, given what he described as “great progress” towards an agreement to end the war with Tehran.
- Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy has announced the strait of Hormuz could reopen following the end of “threats from aggressors”, Reuters reports, citing state media. The IRGC navy said the safe and stable transit through the key waterway could be possible. It follows Donald Trump’s remarks yesterday that he has paused his “Project Freedom” to open the strait of Hormuz due to “great progress” being made towards a “complete and final agreement” with Iran.
- France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier group is moving into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as part of efforts by France and Britain to prepare for a future mission to help freedom of navigation on the strait of Hormuz, France’s military said on Wednesday. The French Armed Forces ministry said in a statement that the aircraft carrier group had crossed the Suez canal on Wednesday, en route to the south of the Red Sea.
- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of the general staff, Eyal Zamir, said the military was prepared to launch a new offensive against Iran if needed. Speaking to troops today in the town of Khiam in southern Lebanon, where Israeli strikes have continued despite a ceasefire, Zamir said they have “no restrictions as to using force” and claimed the IDF has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah operatives since the Iran war began, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported.
- An Israeli strike in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa valley on Wednesday killed four people, Lebanon’s health ministry said, with local media reporting the attack took place before the Israeli army issued a warning to evacuate the area along with 11 other towns. “An Israeli enemy raid on the town of Zellaya in West Bekaa resulted in four martyrs, including two women and an elderly man,” the ministry said.
- Oil prices have continued to slide with the Brent crude global benchmark falling 9.2% to $99.79 a barrel - the first time it has been below $100 since 22 April. It follows reports that the US and Iran were closing in on an agreement to bring an end to the war. Iran has also reportedly announced that the strait of Hormuz could reopen after Donald Trump paused his so-called “Project Freedom” to guide commercial ships out of the economically vital waterway.
- The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has asked the European Commission to activate its blocking statute to prevent compliance with US sanctions on the international criminal court (ICC) over its investigation into Israel’s actions in Gaza. The EU blocking statute is a legal mechanism that would effectively allow European companies to ignore the US sanctions.
- The UN has called on Israel to immediately release two activists taken from a Gaza aid flotilla, and demanded an investigation into “disturbing accounts” they had been severely mistreated. Spanish national Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian activist Thiago Avila were among dozens of activists on a flotilla attempting to transport aid to Gaza when it was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters near Crete last Thursday. The two men are being held in a prison in Ashkelon in southern Israel.
Romanian socialists and far right topple government
.jpeg)
Romanian
socialists and far right topple government
The key
NATO member on Europe’s eastern edge faces fresh upheaval with an economic
crisis looming.
May 5,
2026 1:25 pm CET
By Tim
Ross and Ferdinand Knapp
https://www.politico.eu/article/romania-government-collapses/
Romania’s
centrist government collapsed on Tuesday, throwing one of Europe’s most
strategically important countries into turmoil at a critical time.
Center-right
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, who heads the National Liberal Party, lost a
confidence vote in the country’s parliament after only 10 months in office,
bringing his short-lived and unpopular attempt to rein in the country’s budget
deficit to an abrupt end.
The
European Union’s sixth most populous country — and a key NATO member bordering
Ukraine — now faces an uncertain future as it seeks to stave off the threat of
an economic crisis in the months ahead.
Moderate
centrist President Nicușor Dan is now expected to hold consultations with party
leaders in an attempt to broker an agreement for a new coalition to take over
running the country.
Bolojan’s
defeat was in part masterminded by far right leader George Simion, who promised
“an end to ten months during which the so-called pro-Europeans have delivered
nothing but taxes, war and poverty.”
But
Simion’s bid to oust the prime minister only succeeded because his far right
Alliance for the Union of Romanians joined forces with the center-left Social
Democratic Party (PSD), which quit Bolojan’s coalition government last month.
That
unlikely alliance between the MAGA-supporting Simion and the Romanian social
democrats triggered consternation among mainstream leaders in Brussels — who
saw it as a new and unwelcome example of establishment parties teaming up with
the populist far right.
Critics
of such tactical arrangements say any centrist party that works with the far
right — even on a short-term basis — risks helping to normalize extremists who
threaten the EU’s values.
Bolojan’s
allies responded to their defeat by condemning the social democrats for
partnering with Simion’s nationalists, who have threatened to cut aid to
Ukraine and oppose EU migration policies.
“Creating
parliamentary majorities with parties that are constantly attacking the EU and
denying its role is profoundly anti-European,” said Siegfried Mureșan, a
Romanian lawmaker in the European Parliament who is also vice-president of the
center-right European People’s Party, to which Bolojan’s party belongs.
“I call
upon the Party of European Socialists to explain why it is openly aligning
itself with one of the most radically anti-European and extremist political
forces in the EU,” Mureșan added.
A fresh
crisis
For
Romania, the government’s collapse heralds yet another episode in its recent
history of upheaval.
A vast,
suspected foreign interference operation forced the 2024 presidential election
to be canceled, and the frontrunner in that contest now faces trial on coup
charges.
Romania
is also suffering from soaring inflation and has the EU’s highest budget
deficit. If the country does not complete key reforms by August, it risks
losing out on around €11 billion in EU funding, and if public finances aren’t
brought under control soon, analysts worry a credit rating downgrade could
follow soon afterward.
During
his brief time in office, Bolojan attempted to tackle the challenges Romania
faces with painful austerity plans he attempted to impose with headstrong
determination.
But last
month the social democrats, who hold the most seats in parliament, pulled out
of the prime minister’s coalition government in a show of protests against his
leadership and the spending cuts that affected parts of the country they
represent. The PSD’s decision to work with Simion to overthrow Bolojan may have
a lasting impact on how the crisis unfolds.
Simion
won the most votes in the first round of last year’s presidential election
before losing to Dan in the run-off vote. Since then, his nationalists have
consolidated their support and are currently leading the polls. But President
Dan has been clear he will not allow Simion’s party to be part of the next
government.
“I want
to assure Romanians that, whatever happens, Romania will continue to follow its
Western path, the state will continue to function, and there is political
agreement on the immediate fundamental goals,” he said before the parliamentary
vote.
Cristian
Pîrvulescu, of the National University of Political Studies and Public
Administration in Bucharest, said Dan was undertaking an “extremely difficult”
task as he attempts to restore stability.
“He
becomes the conductor of a dysfunctional orchestra at the worst possible
moment,” he said. “The political crisis has now formally become a governmental
one, with constitutional risks still on the table if coalition-building fails.”
One
option initially on the table was for the socialists to form a fresh coalition
government with Bolojan’s National Liberal Party, under the leadership of a new
prime minister. “All options are open,” PSD leader Sorin Grindeanu said, adding
that he hoped a solution would be found quickly.
Political
analyst Radu Magdin said that several members of Bolojan’s party were already
“trying to reach out” to encourage lawmakers to “think about the renewal of a
pro-European coalition.”
But
following an afternoon meeting of the party’s leadership, Liberal lawmaker
Robert Sighiartău rejected the possibility of forming a new government with the
socialists.
If the
impasse continues, Dan may be obliged to appoint a technocratic prime minister
who is not a prominent figure in any of the country’s political parties. Such a
leader could potentially command wider support and be able to reassure
investors that Romania remains committed to reducing its deficit and staying on
a pro-Western political path.
Carmen
Paun contributed reporting to this article, which has been updated.
The collapse of Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s government in Romania on May 5, 2026, marks a historic shift in European politics. By joining forces with the far-right to oust a pro-EU leader, Romania’s Social Democrats (PSD) have shattered an informal continental "firewall"—the long-standing agreement among mainstream parties to never collaborate with the radical right.
.jpeg)
Europe’s
far-right firewall melts as Socialists topple Romania’s PM
The
collapse of Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s government in Romania on May 5, 2026,
marks a historic shift in European politics. By joining forces with the
far-right to oust a pro-EU leader, Romania’s Social Democrats (PSD) have
shattered an informal continental "firewall"—the long-standing
agreement among mainstream parties to never collaborate with the radical right.
Key
Events in the Collapse
- The Vote: The no-confidence motion passed
with 281 votes, comfortably exceeding the 233-vote threshold.
- The Alliance: The center-left Social
Democrats (PSD), the largest party in parliament, partnered with the
far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) and other
nationalist groups to bring down the minority government.
- Immediate Impact: Romania’s currency, the leu,
fell to a record low of 5.21 against the euro. Borrowing costs have spiked
as markets worry about fiscal stability and access to billions in EU
recovery funds.
Why the
"Firewall" Melted
The decision
by the Socialists to abandon the pro-EU coalition is seen as a strategic—if
controversial—pivot:
- Austerity Backlash: Bolojan’s government was
pushing through unpopular cost-cutting measures, privatization, and
reforms required by the EU to reduce Romania's massive budget deficit.
- Poll Pressure: AUR has surged in popularity,
currently leading opinion polls with approximately 35–37% support.
PSD leaders reportedly felt they needed to "get back in touch"
with voters who had migrated to the populists.
- Power Play: Critics argue that PSD broke
the coalition to regain its status as the dominant party in charge, rather
than waiting for a scheduled leadership rotation in 2027.
European
Consequences
Observers
from organizations like the Financial Times and Politico describe this as a "taboo-breaking"
moment for the EU:
- Political Precedent: It is the first time a major
center-left party in the EU has actively worked with the radical right to
topple a democratic government.
- Brussels Reaction: European Socialist leaders are
under pressure to "maintain their credibility" and discipline
the Romanian member party for enabling the far right.
- Future Outlook: While snap elections are
unlikely before the 2028 general cycle, Romania now faces a prolonged
period of political instability that could jeopardize its pro-Western
alignment and economic recovery.
Europe’s far-right firewall melts as Socialists topple Romania’s PM
.jpeg)
Europe’s
far-right firewall melts as Socialists topple Romania’s PM
https://www.ft.com/content/0d5dd64c-8cfe-4ed5-904d-6a0bee3b01f3?syn-25a6b1a6=1
Henry Foy
Published4
HOURS AGO
Good
morning. News to start: Brussels has warned that the Venice Biennale would
breach EU sanctions if it allows a Russian government-owned pavilion to
participate in the annual cultural gala that opens this week, in letters to the
event’s organisers and the Italian government seen by the FT.
Today,
Mari and our Balkans correspondent explain the ramifications of Romania’s
social democrats teaming up with ultranationalists to topple the country’s
government, and our energy correspondent reports on EU plans to boost the
circular economy of critical raw materials.
When the
levee breaks
The
collapse of Romania’s government has shattered one of Europe’s last informal
firewalls against the far right, after the country’s social democrats teamed up
with ultranationalist Eurosceptics to topple Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan,
writes Mari Novik and Marton Dunai.
Context:
Romania’s pro-EU government had been under pressure to rein in a budget deficit
of more than 9 per cent of GDP. Bolojan’s austerity push prompted the Social
Democratic Party (PSD) to quit the coalition earlier this month. PSD then
backed a no-confidence vote alongside the far-right AUR, which they won
yesterday.
Many
European parliaments have established a cordon sanitaire to keep far-right
parties from power. In recent years, however, mainly centre-right parties have
begun forming governing coalitions or striking deals to gain their support to
pass votes.
Until
yesterday, the pan-EU centre-left coalition Party of European Socialists (PES),
with the exception of Slovakia’s SMER, had prided themselves on not crossing
that red line.
Therefore,
PSD’s involvement with the far-right in Romania would have “huge repercussions”
across the European continent, said Alberto Alemanno, Jean Monnet professor of
EU law at HEC Paris.
“What
happened in Bucharest is a political first: the last great taboo of European
politics is gone,” he said. “The Chinese wall is smashed, and the Overton
window is wide open. What comes through it next is the real question for
Europe’s politics.”
PES said
yesterday they continued to support their Romanian member party, while their
grouping in the European parliament — the Socialists and Democrats — called on
pro-European forces to form a credible government quickly to “deliver on the
reforms that Romanians need”.
Both PSD
and AUR said the vote was a one-off alignment and they had no intention of
forming a government together. But Siegfried Mureșan, a Romanian vice-chair of
the European People’s Party, warned that the co-operation between the two
parties was “long in the making”.
“For
Europe as a whole the credible wall towards the extreme right is falling
apart,” he said. “Every journey starts with a first step.”
The
European Green Party called on the PES to help PSD clean up what they said
deepened political uncertainty across Europe.
“Power-hungry
parts of the conservatives are trying to cross all lines,” said Terry Reintke,
co-president of the European parliament’s Green group. “By choosing power over
democracy the Social Democrats in Romania have crossed a red line . . . the European Socialists must react.”
Magic
roundabout
European
commissioners will discuss today how to boost the reuse and recycling of more
critical raw materials, as Brussels seeks to bolster supplies of key components
for the clean energy transition, writes Ian Johnston.
Context:
The EU is developing a circular economy act this year to increase recycling of
critical raw materials and reduce reliance on imports, particularly from China.
European
commissioners will hold a discussion on preliminary plans for a circular
economy package led by environment commissioner Jessika Roswall, in an
orientation debate today.
The
strategy focuses on building out Europe’s resilience by strengthening secondary
supplies of critical raw materials that go into everything from wind turbines
to electric vehicles.
It will
also seek to reduce single-market barriers, strengthen demand for recycled
materials and lower dependence on “virgin critical” raw materials, according to
a document seen by the FT.
One area
that may face industry pressure is plans for makers of electronic and other
goods rich in raw materials to be made more responsible for how their products
are disposed of at the end of their life cycle, including through “strong
economic incentives”.
The
Commission could also make it easier to move waste around the bloc — a
longstanding sticking point in the internal market that has held back
recycling.
Commissioners
will also discuss how to strengthen demand for recycled materials, which is
weak because primary materials are often cheaper. Until that changes, making
recycled rare earths and other materials more attractive is a tough ask.
The incredible shrinking German chancellor
.jpeg)
The
incredible shrinking German chancellor
Friedrich
Merz wanted to lead Europe. First he has to lead his country.
By MARC
FELIX SERRAO
in Berlin
Illustration
by Natália Delgado/ POLITICO
https://www.politico.eu/article/the-incredible-shrinking-german-chancellor-friedrich-merz/
May 6,
2026 4:00 am CET
By Marc
Felix Serrao
Marc
Felix Serrao is a global reporter with The Axel Springer Global Reporters
Network.
When
Friedrich Merz arrived at the White House last summer for his first meeting
with U.S. President Donald Trump, the German chancellor brought a gift
calibrated to flatter without groveling: a framed copy of the birth certificate
of the American leader’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, born in 1869 in
Kallstadt, a wine-growing village in southwestern Germany.
The
meeting went smoothly enough. The two men talked Ukraine, trade, defense
spending and the fraying transatlantic order. Trump, pleased, called Merz a
“very respected man.” That was then.
Trump now
speaks about Merz very differently. Last week, the president said the
chancellor “doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” and added: “No wonder
Germany is doing so poorly, both economically, and otherwise!”
Merz, 70,
had walked into this fight himself. Speaking to students at a high school, the
chancellor had accused the U.S. of attacking Iran without a strategy or exit
plan. “An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership,” he
said.
Since
then, the bilateral mood has cooled sharply. Washington has announced plans to
withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from Germany. And the planned stationing of
Tomahawk cruise missiles on German soil, once presented as part of a new way to
deter Russia, now looks far less certain.
Berlin is
trying to play down the damage, insisting the troop reduction had long been
under review and that no final decision has been made on the missiles. But
whatever the precise chain of cause and effect, the damage is real — and it
happened under a leader who has taken pride in being seen as what the Germans
call an Außenkanzler, a chancellor whose authority rests heavily on command of
foreign affairs.
The
timing is unfortunate. On Wednesday, Merz marks his first year in office. Until
recently, foreign policy was the one field in which even many of his critics
thought he had found his footing. Abroad, he seemed more assured than his
predecessor Olaf Scholz and more willing than former Chancellor Angela Merkel
to speak the language of power: more serious on defense, clearer on Russia,
more comfortable with the idea that Germany may no longer be able to avoid a
role it has long resisted — leading.
At home,
Merz has always looked far weaker. He is constrained by his coalition with the
center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and weighed down by the impression that he
gives ground too quickly when the partnership comes under strain. For most of
his first year as chancellor, one thing seemed to define him: the gap between
external ambition and domestic weakness. The clash with Trump now threatens to
eliminate that distinction, just not in the way Merz might have hoped.
In a poll
published in late April, just 15 percent of Germans said they were satisfied
with his performance, while 83 percent were dissatisfied — the worst rating
ever recorded for a German chancellor. Even Scholz, at the tail end of his
government, was more popular than Merz is now.
For this
report, I spoke with current and former advisers to the chancellor, former
federal ministers who served under Merkel and Scholz, senior members of Merz’s
Christian Democratic Union, as well as the center-right party’s supporters in
its youth organization and its pro-business wing. Most spoke only on condition
of anonymity, a measure of how sensitive judgments about Merz’s first year in
office have already become.
Two
questions stand at the center: How did a man who took office promising
authority and renewal come to seem so diminished so quickly? And can he
recover?
The loner
in power
Merz won
Germany’s 2025 election because he promised a fresh start. He cast himself as
Merkel’s opposite: willing to end the long, soft drift of the previous decades
and deliver a genuine conservative, pro-market change of course.
His
biography suited that promise. When I first interviewed Merz in May 2020, as
the coronavirus pandemic shifted almost every conversation on to a screen, his
political career looked long over. Eighteen years earlier, Merkel had ousted
and sidelined him as leader of their party’s parliamentary group. What followed
was a lucrative second act in business: years on supervisory boards and
advisory councils, far from the daily trench warfare of politics.
Merz was
a man with money but without power: vice president of the CDU Economic Council,
a party-aligned business lobby, yet politically peripheral, with no government
office, party post or parliamentary seat. A private citizen, in other words,
who could have glided very comfortably into retirement. But Merz had unfinished
business.
Before we
could begin our on-screen interview, he fought with the technology in his
Berlin apartment. I could hear him, but he could hear nothing. Merz grew
irritated, then furious. After a few seconds, he began to shout. What exactly
he shouted never became part of the authorized interview and cannot be quoted
here. Suffice it to say: The man can curse.
His
closest aide at the time, a young man named Armin Peter, fixed the problem;
Merz had not turned on his speakers. It was a small scene, but in retrospect,
it feels oddly revealing. Today, as chancellor, he commands a vast apparatus.
Back then, he had only Peter and a few loyal helpers from the hilly Sauerland
region, the rural, conservative corner of Western Germany that shaped him
politically.
There are
politicians who reward and return loyalty. Merkel is one of them; she has kept
the same office manager and close adviser for more than three decades. Merz is
different. He expects loyalty, one former confidant told me, but does not
return it.
None of
the people who accompanied Merz on his long march to power has remained in his
immediate orbit. A key former personal aide and confidante left the chancellery
after just 11 weeks. His former chief of staff was pushed out in January.
Peter, the young man who helped him with the speakers, was demoted from
personal spokesperson to deputy party spokesperson. He now works for a business
forum.
The
result, according to someone who was once close to Merz, is a government
apparatus full of advisers but no real allies. He has no inner circle bound to
him beyond the office, no loyalists fighting together for the policy changes he
promised. Merz, this person said, has immense self-confidence but is also
strikingly susceptible to influence.
Domestic
hobbles
At home,
the picture has been grim from the start.
Merz took
office last year after an election that saw his center-right Christian
Democrats win, but with one of the worst results in the party’s history — and
the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) not far behind in second place.
After negotiating a coalition agreement with the Social Democrats, Merz at
first fell short of being chosen chancellor, becoming the first leader in
Germany’s postwar history to have to go back to parliament for a second vote.
He’s had
to scale back his ambitions accordingly. Immediately after the election,
however, he and his coalition partners pressured the outgoing Bundestag to
amend the constitution to allow record borrowing for spending on defense,
infrastructure and the fight against climate change. The hope was to lay the
groundwork for a turning point in the country’s trajectory. Instead, the
perception is that — aside from promises on military spending — Germany’s
course has remained largely unchanged.
A
promised cut in household energy taxes never materialized, nor did Merz’s
loudly announced “autumn of reforms.” Although he once called tax increases
“poison,” high earners are now bracing for more of them. On migration, the
government can point to lower asylum numbers, but deportations remain limited.
And the larger economic ailments persist: high energy prices, heavy taxes and
levies, a runaway bureaucracy and deindustrialization, which is no longer
something on the horizon but a growing reality.
In fact,
rather than being seen as a break from the past, Merz has begun to remind many
Germans of Merkel. But a former CDU federal minister, who also spoke to me on
condition of anonymity, argued that the comparison is unfair in one crucial
respect: Merkel would never have allowed herself to be boxed in by a coalition
partner.
As an
example, he pointed to a recent relief package: a temporary cut in fuel taxes
and a tax-free bonus of up to €1,000 for employees. Merz had expressed doubts
about that kind of response to rising energy prices right until the coalition’s
final negotiating session. Then he signed off on it. Merkel, the former
minister said, would never have entered talks from such a position. And she
would never have let her partners make her look weak.
Christian
Lindner, Germany’s former finance minister, put it more acidly. “Friedrich Merz
won his chancellorship with positions and promises that stand in contradiction
to the positions and actions that now define his chancellorship,” he told me.
“It remains an open question how this break, unprecedented in its scope, will
affect our country’s political culture.”
Lindner,
47, was the leader of the Free Democrats, but his parliamentary career ended
when the FDP crashed out of the Bundestag in the last election. He has since
left politics and joined the executive board of Autoland, Germany’s largest
independent car dealership.
And yet,
Lindner is not alone in seeing a widening gap between Merz’s promises and his
record. Andreas Rödder, one of Germany’s best-known conservative intellectuals,
makes much the same point. For a time, the historian seemed set to become one
of the chancellor’s principal idea men. After Merz took over the CDU, he put
Rödder in charge of a commission on the party’s “values and foundations.”
But when
Rödder began to cast cautious doubt on the CDU’s rigid firewall against
cooperation with the AfD, he came under attack from inside the party — and Merz
declined to stand by him. The chancellor’s central problem, Rödder told me, is
the gap between announcement and implementation.
International
ambitions
In the
earlier months of his chancellorship, foreign policy offered a rare bright spot
for a leader so often besieged at home. Even Merz-skeptics thought he got the
tone right. He sounded more forceful than Scholz or Merkel, especially on
Russia’s imperial aggression and on Europe’s duty to defend both Ukraine and
itself.
Merz
wants Germany to remain anchored in the transatlantic alliance, but he also
wants Europe to become less dependent on American power, calling for “a strong,
self-sustaining European pillar within the alliance.” At the same time, he has
never warmed to Trump’s MAGA movement. His instinct was to deal pragmatically,
and with as much diplomatic restraint as possible.
The
chancellor’s recent Iran remark broke that rule. It was not candor in the
national interest, nor an unavoidable act of principle, but a gratuitous swipe
at a president whose vanity and vindictiveness are well known. The episode may
be the most consequential example of needless rhetorical sharpness. But it was
not the first time Merz had let that side of himself show when dealing with
other leaders.
In March,
the chancellor stepped up to a podium in the European Council building in
Brussels. It was late at night after a long meeting of the EU’s national
leaders, and the 6-foot-6-inch-tall chancellor stooped as he leaned forward to
speak into the microphone. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, good evening or good
morning, whichever you prefer,” he said. “I’m glad you held out. We had to do
the same.” Then the geniality disappeared.
Merz
turned on Viktor Orbán, the nationalist Hungarian prime minister who had
blocked an aid package for Ukraine. Orbán’s veto, Merz said, was “an act of
gross disloyalty in the European Union” that would leave “deep scars.” The
chancellor was not alone in his anger toward the Hungarian leader, but the
directness of his assault stood out. The timing made his attack even sharper.
Orbán, a Trump ally, was headed into a difficult campaign for an election he
would ultimately lose.
Are
Merz’s outbursts simply a matter of clumsy communication and an occasionally
loose tongue? In Germany, he has a reputation for both. Or is the strain of his
troubled coalition at home beginning to spill over into his conduct abroad? A
chancellor weakened domestically may be tempted to sound stronger
internationally. The danger is that, in doing so, he harms the German interests
he means to defend.
Coalition
troubles
One
reason for Merz’s troubles is coalition arithmetic. The chancellor has tied
himself to the political center, emphatically, almost morally, rejecting any
suggestion of cooperation with the far right. “I have made a final decision to
seek support for our policies exclusively in the center,” he said at a CDU
party conference in Stuttgart in February. “At the moment, that narrows us down
to a coalition with the SPD.” The line was meant as a declaration of democratic
hygiene. It also amounted to ceding power to Lars Klingbeil, the vice
chancellor, finance minister and co-leader of the Social Democrats.
Klingbeil
clearly understands how to handle Merz. Twenty-two years younger than the
chancellor, he has often looked like the sharper tactician. Again and again,
Klingbeil has played the role of the pragmatist who would like to go further
but simply cannot sell certain policies to his comrades in the party.
Senior
politicians from Merz’s CDU have often only learned later what had already been
agreed between the two men. When Katherina Reiche, Germany’s economy minister,
recently criticized Klingbeil’s flirtation with a tax on oil-company “windfall
profits,” she was reprimanded by the chancellery. Only after CDU resistance
stiffened did Merz join in the defense of his minister.
The
Social Democrats are not the chancellor’s only problem either. In addition to
lacking a loyal inner circle, Merz and his party lack a network of like-minded
publishers and intellectuals to arm politicians with arguments, something his
opponents on the left and the nationalist right enjoy. This is partly because
Christian Democrats have seen themselves not as an ideological force but as a
broad catch-all movement. The result is a recurring pattern: The chancellor
tries to speak plainly, but without enough argumentative precision, he often
leaves himself open to attack.
In the
fall, for example, Merz spoke of a “problem” in the “cityscape” and connected
that impression to deportations. The formulation was so vague it left ample
room for hostile interpretation. Critics accused him of stigmatizing migrants,
and even parts of his own coalition and party distanced themselves. Merz later
tried to clarify what he had meant. But the damage was done.
That same
pattern runs through his domestic record. Leading economists warned early that
Merz’s debt-financed launch would prove a mere flash in the pan unless it was
followed by serious reform. That warning now looks prescient.
Merz now
enters his second year with three conceivable paths before him: On the first,
the coalition holds and the reforms, like the coalition agreement itself, bear
an unmistakable SPD imprint. Germany gains stability, at least until the next
federal election, but not the change of course the chancellor promised.
On the
second path, strong showings by the AfD in Eastern Germany’s fall elections —
where the far right could even clinch its first state premiership — deepen the
coalition’s centrifugal forces. Merz has repeatedly ruled out a minority
government and shifting majorities, including with the far right. But politics
is full of impossibilities, up until the moment they happen. If Merz remains
unwilling, another figure in his party may prove less inhibited, pushing the
CDU toward tolerating shifting majorities, even with the AfD. And who knows, at
some point, perhaps even toward a coalition, though such a step would very
likely tear the party apart.
On the
third path, an external shock — another war, terrorism, a pandemic, a financial
crash — blows apart the assumptions on which this coalition rests and forces a
sharper reckoning.
It is
still too early for a final verdict on Merz. On that point, everyone I spoke to
agreed, including those who had little positive to say about his first year.
History can move slowly. Germany’s postwar leaders Helmut Kohl and Gerhard
Schröder both needed time before their defining domestic projects emerged. But
they led mass parties with vote shares near 40 or even 50 percent. Under Merz,
the Christian Democrats have been able to muster only about half that.
Meanwhile, the AfD, which Merz once pledged to weaken, has surpassed his party
in the polls.
Merz’s
problem is no longer merely that his domestic record falls short of his
campaign promises. It is that the one area in which he seemed to rise above
that weakness — foreign policy — now reflects a similar flaw: a tendency to
speak forcefully before calculating the consequences.
If the
German chancellor is to recover, he’ll likely have to flip his playbook. He’ll
need to establish authority at home and show more restraint abroad.
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