Free Republic

European confidence in an American “security guarantee” has hit a historic low, a survey suggests, with only one in 10 people across 15 countries seeing the US as an ally and majorities in all doubting it would come to their aid if they were attacked. The survey, published on Wednesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank before critical G7 and Nato summits in France and Turkey over the coming weeks, revealed “deep European distrust in the US”, the authors said. It also showed that, while many Europeans felt relations with Washington would improve once Donald Trump leaves...

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, meanwhile, gleefully predicted that Europeans would be “freezing in their homes” because they hadn’t thought through the consequences of throwing their support behind Ukraine. “The cold is coming soon,” he said, menacingly, in June last year. But as the European Union enters the last month of the meteorological winter in 2023, signs are becoming clearer that its members have weathered an historic crisis – and not just because “General Frost” has proved a milder adversary than Medvedev predicted. Within eight months of Russian troops setting foot on Ukrainian soil, the bloc of 27 European states...

Angela Merkel has called on campaigners in Britain’s EU referendum debate to moderate their language ahead of next week’s vote, as political leaders and officials across Europe paid tribute to the killed Labour MP Jo Cox. The German chancellor, who described the attack on the pro-European West Yorkshire MP as “terrible” but declined to link it directly to the referendum, called for all involved to respect the beliefs and opinions of others. “Otherwise, the radicalisation will become unstoppable,” she said. “Exaggerations, and radicalisation of part of the language, do not help foster an atmosphere of respect. We know how important...