Fredrik Erixon

What does the European centre-right stand for?

29 July 2023 9:00 am

Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), dropped the bomb last weekend. In a TV interview, Merz…

Why Sanna Marin lost Finland’s election

3 April 2023 4:00 pm

A journalist and observer of Finnish politics once said there is one headline that works for every Finnish election: ‘Finland…

Is this the birth of a Nordic Nato?

14 April 2022 5:30 pm

In the past six weeks, Finland and Sweden’s security policies have changed more than they have over the past six…

A mix of Corbyn, Greta and XR: Norway's new coalition

15 September 2021 7:50 am

Norway has just elected a new Prime Minister. Erna Solberg, the convivial centre-right leader that has governed the country for…

What Sweden's political crisis says about Europe's collapsing centre

26 June 2021 9:00 am

What the rise of Nooshi Dadgostar reveals about Europe’s collapsing centre

Orban and Macron, Europe’s new power couple

16 January 2021 9:00 am

The unlikely alliance of Orban and Macron

Can the EU survive this virus?

23 May 2020 9:00 am

Will the EU survive the virus?

Sweden has pioneered an alternative to lockdown – and it works

17 May 2020 9:15 pm

Uppsala The culture of social distancing does strange things to us. A few weeks ago I got an invitation to…

League of nations: the race out of lockdown

16 May 2020 9:00 am

Lifting lockdown is a worldwide experiment

The Swedish experiment looks like it's paying off

21 April 2020 7:37 am

Two weeks ago, I wrote about ‘The Swedish experiment’ in The Spectator.  As the world went into lockdown, Sweden opted for a different…

No lockdown, please, we’re Swedish

4 April 2020 9:00 am

There’s no lockdown in sight here

The death of the centre in European politics

15 February 2020 3:36 pm

Stockholm It’s hard not to feel sorry for Leo Varadkar. He positioned himself as Ireland’s champion and even ended up…

The death of the centre in European politics

15 February 2020 9:00 am

What happens when times change, but parties don’t?

Finland is rebooting its politics – and its new centrism is defined by youth

14 December 2019 9:00 am

 Helsinki Sanna Marin is the world’s new feminist political icon. At the age of 34, she’s just been appointed the…

Delhi notebook: Nuclear war is not around the corner

9 March 2019 9:00 am

India is not preparing for war, but picking up the newspapers in Delhi you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.…

A populist surge in the May 2019 elections could change the face of the EU forever

5 January 2019 9:00 am

There is a strange pre-revolutionary atmosphere in Brussels. At the various receptions and dinners before we broke up for Christmas,…

Sweden’s political panic attack

1 September 2018 9:00 am

 Uppsala, Sweden When I dropped off my kids at school early last week, I noticed that -another parent’s car was…

Angela’s ashes: Merkel’s grand project is crumbling

30 June 2018 9:00 am

‘This is not about whether Mrs Merkel stays as chancellor next week or not,’ said Xavier Bettel, the Prime Minister…

Macron can see that the EU must change or die

19 May 2018 9:00 am

It was a moment to cherish, not to spoil. But I wasn’t the only one at the grand Charlemagne prize…

Angela Merkel has created Germany’s far-right

24 February 2018 9:00 am

Bankruptcy, wrote Ernest Hemingway, happens in two ways — ‘gradually and then suddenly’. By now, Angela Merkel will be beginning…

Without Merkel in charge, Europe could fall apart

25 November 2017 9:00 am

No leader is indispensable, but it does feel like the future of Europe stands or falls with Angela Merkel. She’s…

Europe’s imploding right

24 June 2017 9:00 am

If the British Conservative party is feeling stunned, having calamitously misread the public mood in a general election, then it…

There will be a trade deal

30 March 2017 2:00 pm

Most diplomats in Brussels will tell you that Theresa May has just embarked upon a fool’s errand, that Britain might…

There will be a trade deal

30 March 2017 2:00 pm

Most diplomats in Brussels will tell you that Theresa May has just embarked upon a fool’s errand, that Britain might…