Macron will enjoy his royal welcome. But the Franco-British relationship remains a love-hate affair | Paul Taylor

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Britain and France are so close that there’s a saying in Wimereux, a seafront resort on the north French coast, that if you can see England it’s going to rain, and if you can’t, it’s because it’s already raining. Despite – or perhaps because of – that geographical proximity, Europe’s two nuclear powers have historically … Read more

Macron’s UK state visit underlines effort to move on from Brexit nightmare | Emmanuel Macron

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When Emmanuel Macron rides in a horse-drawn carriage to Windsor Castle this week, it will be to celebrate the return of close political relations between London and Paris, drawing a line under the damaging spats of the Brexit years. The French president’s office said the “shared interests” of the two countries were what mattered now, … Read more

Germany is ‘importing’ antisemitism, our leaders claim. Irony is not their strong point | Mithu Sanyal

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It could have been a Mitchell and Webb sketch – a man with a very German accent and a distinguished Nazi grandfather complaining: “These foreigners, coming over here, importing their antisemitism.” Only this was not a comedy. The man was Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and he was making his complaint last month in an interview … Read more

The Guardian view on Macron’s state visit: a renewed entente cordiale is good for France, Britain and Europe | Editorial

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In the years after the Brexit referendum, the deterioration of Anglo-French relations became one measure of the sorry disconnect between a radicalised, reckless Conservative party and any sane notion of the national interest. In 2021, a bellicose Boris Johnson sent Royal Navy frigates to patrol off the coast of Jersey in response to a dispute with … Read more

Europe does not have to choose between guns and butter. There is another way | Shahin Vallée and Joseph de Weck

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Shahin Vallée Joseph de Weck European governments are once again haunted by a tough choice between financing the military or spending on social programmes. That, at any rate, is the narrative that has taken hold since Donald Trump’s retreat from the postwar global security order and the urgent pressure to rearm Europe. But to frame … Read more

Across Europe, the financial sector has pushed up house prices. It’s a political timebomb | Tim White

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“The housing crisis is now as big a threat to the EU as Russia,” Jaume Collboni, the mayor of Barcelona, recently declared. “We’re running the risk of having the working and middle classes conclude that their democracies are incapable of solving their biggest problem.” It is not hard to see where Collboni is coming from. … Read more

In Iran, Israel’s attack has shattered any trust in the west – even for those with no love of the state | Hossein Hamdieh

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A trembling ceasefire has brought a pause to what had become the familiar sounds of explosions over Tehran. I was born in 1988, a year before the Iran-Iraq war came to an end. For my generation, war was something that belonged to the past – an impossible event, until this summer. For 12 days, we … Read more

Europe is scrambling to form a united front and regain relevance in the Iran crisis | Iran

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Exposed as divided and marginalised during the Iran crisis, European nations are scrambling to retrieve a place at the Middle East negotiating table, fearing an impulsive Donald Trump has diminishing interest in stabilising Iran or the wider region now that he believes he has achieved his key objective of wiping out Tehran’s nuclear programme. On … Read more