Uncommon Decency

"Is it a revolt? No sire, it's a revolution". While this famous exchange is attributed to Louis the XVIth and the Duke de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, odds are that French President Macron has had similar conversations with his aides in the past few weeks. In an attempt to balance the books of France's pensions regime, Macron's party— Renaissance —filed a bill to increase the legal retirement age f...

While the geographic center of the EU is apparently in a small Bavarian field, its political center is harder to pin down. Historically, it was probably somewhere between France and Germany, but with the war in Ukraine, this center has seemingly moved East. Warsaw was not too long ago under considerable pressure from Brussels over rule-of-law skirmishes. Now, Poland and Lithuania are reaping the p...

On episode five of this show, the late Gyórgy Schópflin, then retired and in the twilight of his life, made a lucid observation about what, at bottom, set his native Hungary apart from his adoptive Great Britain. "Hungary has no post-colonial guilt", intoned the retired academic and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Schöpflin meant this as a partial explanation—if not a justification...

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the...

Since mid-December, a corruption scandal has been unfolding in Brussels that could soon begin rock the European Union's (EU) very foundations. Eva Kaili, a 44-year-old Member of the European Parliament (MEP), was detained by Belgian authorities along with three other suspects—including fellow MEP Marc Tarabella and Kaili's partner, an assistant to another MEP—for allegedly accepting large bribes f...

"Exactly a year ago, I broadcast a message that contained the two things that remain most important now: that Russia had launched a full-scale war against us, and that we are strong. We are ready for anything. We will defeat anyone. Because we are Ukraine. We will never rest until the Russian murderers face the punishment they deserve. The punishment of the international tribunal. The judgement of...

"Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety". These words by American statesman Benjamin Franklin are often paraphrased into "those who sacrifice liberty for security, deserve neither". Franklin was talking about taxes, but don't worry—that's not what we're going to cover today. We're diving back into the world of espionage....

«With your democratic laws we will colonize you, and with our koranic laws we will dominate you». This rather bellicose warning for Europeans came from a 2002 speech by Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, one of the key intellectual leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). It's a great insight on what the MB is—a strictly religious and conservative reaction to modernity that was launched in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan...

"The Soviet State Security Service is more than a secret police organization, more than an intelligence and counter-intelligence organization. It is an instrument for subversion, manipulation and violence, for secret intervention in the affairs of other countries". Those were the words of Allen Dulles, the long-time head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but they may just as well describe...

It's that time of the year again—a time to look back on the year lapsed and make resolutions for the coming one. At episode 75, Uncommon Decency readies to enter its third calendar year—we launched in October 2020—with a potent mix of hope and derision. For the first time this year, we are greeting 2023 with a very special series of Uncommonly Decent awards and gifts. Who claims our "Brutus" award...

It was the opening shot of what the Wall Street Journal 's (WSJ) editorial board fears may become a protracted climate trade war between the European Union (EU) and the United States. In a notorious departure from standard EU lip service to free trade, late last week French President Emmanuel Macron urged fellow European leaders anew to match the Biden administration's round of green subsidies por...

"Within our mandate, the European Central Bank (ECB) is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro, and believe me, it will be enough." By uttering those three words, Mario Draghi saved the Eurozone from collapsing, thereby ushering Europe's monetary policy into the 21st century. European fiscal policy, meanwhile, has not quite caught up. To this day, it still sticks with the treaty-enshri...

"I think this administration—and President Biden personally—is very much attached to Europe, but when you look at the situation today, there is indeed a de-synchronization." In an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes, French President Emmanuel Macron highlighted the growing tension in the transatlantic relationship as the United States and Europe rift apart in a number of areas such as economics and ene...

On May 7, 1999, five bombs rained down from U.S. jets on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, as part of NATO's air campaign to halt the deadly assault by the forces of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Nearly a quarter of a century later, China is transforming the site of its bombed former embassy into an expansive cultural center, set to be one of the largest of it...

In 1791, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth adopted one of the world's most avant-garde constitutions, one establishing a progressive constitutional monarchy. And yet in 1795, the Commonwealth altogether disappeared, partitioned between Prussia, Austria and Russia. This contrast between the Commonwealth's seemingly advanced regime and its total collapse in four years has earned it the neglect of h...

"I think people are going to be sitting in a recession and they're not going to write a blank check to Ukraine. They just won't do it." With those words, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy sparked significant panic in European capitals, with foreign diplomats fearing that a Republican victory in the midterms would lead to diminished US support for Ukraine. Yet the red wave didn't materialize f...

Here is a double paradox: The European Union's (EU) set of founding principles—its telos, so to speak—are undergoing a two-track inversion. The block was initially designed to slide gently towards federalization whilst remaining a largely toothless actor on the world stage. And yet the opposite has happened: the EU has since grown into a powerful geopolitical player of its own that is internally a...

« Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains." When a fresh-faced Vladimir Putin made those comments back in 2000, Russia had only recently lost its Soviet Empire and endured a series of violent conflicts within the borders of the Federation, most notably in Chechnya. Just like the rest of Europe lost its colonies in the latte...

"This is not a bluff. And those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the weathervane can turn and point towards them." With those words, Russian President Vladimir Putin renewed fears across the globe that Russia could employ nuclear weapons in its war with Ukraine. As we edited this episode, Russia conducted its annual nuclear exercises, drills that had added resonance gi...

"Greece, look at history, go back in time; if you go too far, the price will be heavy. We only have one sentence for Greece, do not forget Izmir".  After months of hostile aerial and naval encounters between Greek and Turkish armed forces, Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave this remarkable speech last September. By referring to the 1922 burning of the Greek Anatolian city of Izmir by the Turkish army, Erdo...

The war in Ukraine keeps looming over Europe's geopolitical landscape, with sanctions, energy price caps, and weapons supplies dominating debates at EU Council meetings. Ukraine's recently successful counter-offensive warrants a check-in on the war itself, and what it means for the continent's geopolitical standing as old Europe fades in influence, and new Europe's voice grows louder. The UK, one...

"Civil war politics ended a long time ago in our country, but today it ends in our parliament." Thus welcomed Leo Varadkar—the former and future Irish Taoiseach—the new coalition between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. Ireland has been marked by division, between both the Republic's pro- and anti-treaty parties and the North and South on the island itself. Economic progress has brought with it a shift...

"To you, who have been born in Italy, God has allotted, as if favouring you specially, the best-defined country in Europe". Thus wrote Giuseppe Mazzini in his landmark essay Duties of Country (1860). Mazzini believed that Italy was unified by geography and language, and that through unification, Italians would gain the power to improve their economic and social conditions. Today Italians remain un...

Your favorite euro-realist podcast is gearing up for a new season. In the meantime, here's a short State-of-the-Union primer where we take stock of what we have accomplished over the past 2 years and map out what we intend to achieve in the coming one. On the agenda: our new co-host Julian, our revamped Patreon system (a way to raise the required funds to finance our project whilst offering our Pa...

In the spring of 2017, Emmanuel Macron upended France's political system by breaking ranks with a socialist administration and running for President as the leader of a new party that bore his initials, En Marche! Five years after that victory, Macron has again triumphed against Marine Le Pen in the runoff of the presidential race. To be sure, turnout was historically low, and Le Pen climbed from 3...