For the past decade, the Baltic states have maintained a strict policy toward Russia: no official state visits by presidents, prime ministers or other high-ranking officials.
That changed last week, when Estonian president Kersti Kaljulaid visited a newly renovated embassy in Moscow and stopped by the Kremlin for a cup of tea with Vladimir Putin.
In itself, the meeting does not carry much weight, as nothing crucial was said or done. But it sent the wrong message. Read more
Spaniards vote in general elections on Sunday that were called when Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez lost his parliamentary majority in February. Here is everything you need to know. Read more
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NBC’s political team asks if it is fair to treat Bernie Sanders as an insurgent rather than the legitimate frontrunner in the Democratic presidential primary, given his high name recognition and the fact that he has raised more money than the other candidates.
I think so. Read more
The delay of Brexit could benefit the left in European elections in May.
A poll conducted by Hanbury Strategy for Open Europe found that Labour could win nearly 38 percent support and close to thirty parliamentarians in Strasbourg.
That would make theirs the largest delegation in the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), surpassing the German Social Democrats, and close the gap with the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), which stands to gain nothing from Brexit. Theresa May’s Conservatives group with the mildly Euroskeptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) instead.
Britain will need to hold European Parliament elections if it is still in the EU next month. Read more
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez is benefiting from a three-way fight on the right. With the conservative People’s Party, the liberal Citizens and the far-right Vox splitting the right-wing vote, Sánchez’ Socialist Party is likely to come out on top in elections later this month.
The question will be if Sánchez can form a coalition government with the far-left Podemos and regionalists from the Basque Country — or if he will need the support of Catalan nationalists, who sunk his previous government when Sánchez refused them a legal referendum on independence. Read more
Only three other parties turned up in Milan on Monday, where Italy’s Matteo Salvini had announced the launch of a broad Euroskeptic campaign for the European elections in May.
The attendants were the nationalist parties of Denmark and Finland as well as the Alternative for Germany.
Their counterparts from Austria, France, Hungary, Poland and the Netherlands did not show up. Read more