In a surprise victory for the opposition, the tables have been turned on the president’s plans.
Resentment is growing over German chancellor Angela Merkel’s leadership and fiscal austerity measures.
Angela Merkel’s triumph in winning a third term with such an improbably high margin sets her and Germany apart in Europe.
The Greek government has been ordered to implement draconian measures to reform the labour market by introducing a six-day working week.
Europe is braced for an election bonanza this that will determine the politics of the increasingly contested campaign to save the single currency.
The frontrunner in the French presidential election François Hollande wants to push the European Union to spend big money on growth and jobs.
Brussels has condemned Spain for planning to go against European Commission rules and not focus on its targets.
As a clear damp dawn rose over Brussels on December 9, the tired and tetchy leaders of Europe emerged bleary-eyed.
Europe is sliding into a war with international credit-rating agencies it may struggle to win, following a tumultuous week.
An Anglo-American attempt to hand over the Libyan operation to Nato was rejected by several key member countries.
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/ 10 December 2010
The EU executive launched a campaign this week for a new Europe-wide system of penalties, fines and possible jail terms in financial services.
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/ 25 October 2010
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s obituary for multiculturalism in Germany is at one with the temper of the times in Europe.
When Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Berlin for a fraught summit with Angela Merkel, an aide to the French president gave him a good tip: "No kissing.
Despite overwhelming evidence of genocide, the ‘butcher of Bosnia’ denies all. Ian Traynor reports.
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/ 16 October 2008
Mali is the world’s fifth-poorest country and an estimated four million of its 12-million population are abroad.
Turkey is engaged in a bold attempt to rewrite the basis for Islamic sharia law while reinterpreting the Qur’an for the modern age. The exercise in reforming Islamic jurisprudence is being seen as an attempt to establish a 21st-century form of Islam, fusing Muslim beliefs and tradition with European and Western philosophy.
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/ 22 January 2007
When Condoleezza Rice left the Middle East recently sizing up the chances of relaunching an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, her first port of call was not Downing Street. And it certainly was not Paris. Rather, the United States secretary of state headed for the gleaming palace of steel, glass and concrete that is the German chancellery at the heart of the new Berlin to swap notes with Angela Merkel.
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/ 17 October 2002
Medinfo, the medical information consultancy, has issued a warning to people travelling to Zimbabwe after deaths due to cholera were confirmed by the local government. Cholera has claimed the lives of 24 people in Zimbabwe in the past month.
George W Bush last week committed the US to a new era of unprecedented partnership with Russia as he and Vladimir Putin signed a treaty scrapping two-thirds of their long-range nuclear warheads and delivered a joint declaration redefining relations between them.