Bernard Guetta
Journalist Bernard Guetta (b. 1951) is considered to be one of France’s leading writers on international politics. Beginning his career at the Nouvel Observateur, in the 1980s he moved to Le Monde, where he was posted as a foreign correspondent to Warsaw, Washington and Moscow. Today, he presents a daily programme for the radio station France Inter, and writes a weekly column for Libération.
Updated: 18 January 2017
As the 23-26 May European elections are looming, we have asked 27 journalists and columnists from as many EU countries to explain the main topic at stake in the electoral campaign. A series in collaboration with 27 media outlets from all over Europe. 
Traditional political parties are out of ideas, while the radical right have free reign. The time has come for resistance and intellectual rearmament, argues Bernard Guetta. 
The living conditions for migrants detained in Libya on the basis of EU agreements are inhumane and unworthy of the values that Europe should be defending. 
The political crisis in Britain and the victory of pro-European Emmanuel Macron in France heralds a new dawn for Europe, and will only make it stronger. 
The election of the pro-European Emmanuel Macron is good news for Europe and the world because it could reinvigorate the Union with a new burst of passion and energy. 
With his clear-cut positions and confrontational attitude towards other powers, the thundering businessman who takes up office on January 20th has the merit of centering the attention of the majority of European countries. It's now time to transform this shared attitude into real politics, judges Bernard Guetta. 
After lagging in the polls, ‘Bremain’ campaigners have now come out on top in the most recent voting intentions, with two months to go before the 23 June vote. But many people are still undecided, threatening to shake both the country and the entire EU to their foundations. 
On 6 April Dutch voters roundly rejected the government’s ratification of an association treaty between the EU and Ukraine. It is another blow for the EU, one hardly made better by the low voter turnout (of less than a third of eligible voters), argues Bernard Guetta.
That is the time span Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, has given to the EU’s twenty-eight member states to find a long-term solution to the refugee crisis and to their resettlement. Without this, warns Bernard Guetta, the free-movement zone is at serious risk of imploding. 
The success of Marine Le Pen’s Front National in the first round of the regional elections on 6 December is the latest episode in a phenomenon afflicting the entire continent. It requires democratic movements to respond with solidarity if we want to avoid the disintegration of the European Union, warns Bernard Guetta.
After the attacks of 13 November, a European country – France – has for the first time requested the assistance of its partners in responding to an act of armed aggression. The unanimous response of the other member states marks a turning point in the Union's foreign and defence policy, argues Bernard Guetta. 
The results of the 4 October elections have confirmed a general shift within Europe’s left: an affirmation of parties that are as hostile to austerity as they are pro-European, says political analyst Bernard Guetta. 
Whoever takes the White House for the next four years, Europe must face the facts: it is no longer considered a strategic priority by the United States. Europe must therefore reinforce its common defence structures and spearhead decisive diplomatic initiatives towards Russia and the Mediterranean countries, suggests a French commentator. 
Banking union, relaunched investment, deepening political and economic union; the summit of June 28 and 29 should reignite Europe, says columnist Bernard Guetta. Too bad the players managing the crisis are more like auditors rather than visionaries. 
In their discussion on common investment and eurobonds at an extraordinary summit on 23 May, the EU27 set aside the opposition between “virtuous” and “spendthrift” states and took a further step towards economic integration. 
Now that they are involved in Libya, Europeans have discovered that they do not have the means to achieve their ambitions. And without the backing of military means, EU diplomacy will not be credible in a strategic region for Europe. This is the logic behind the need for common defence programmes. 
The government of Europe leans to the right on one side; the "shadow cabinet" made up of the opposition leans to the left on the other. Step by lurching step, the economic and financial crisis is laying the foundations for democracy across the EU, finds the French columnist Bernard Guetta. 
The new far right not only exerts a growing influence on national governments, it is also organising at a European level and could soon weigh heavily on the very workings of the EU, warns French columnist Bernard Guetta.