Atlantic Sentinel

Category: Opinion

  • Macron Is Lesser of Evils for Mélenchon Voters

    Jean-Luc Mélenchon
    France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon sits in the European Parliament in Brussels, June 6, 2019 (The Left)

    Supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon who are thinking of sitting out the second voting round of the French presidential election ought to take a lesson from Bernie Sanders’ supporters in the United States. When they abstained from the 2016 presidential election, or voted for Green party candidate Jill Stein, they made it possible for Donald Trump to win.

    Just 1.5 out of 136 million Americans voted for Stein. Another 100,000 wrote in Sanders’ name (in the fourteen states where that was allowed), even though he wasn’t a candidate and had endorsed Hillary Clinton.

    But those 1.6 million votes made the difference. Clinton lost Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, three states Barack Obama had won four years earlier, by a margin of less than 1 percent and a total of 75,000 votes. In all three states, the votes for Stein could have tipped the balance in Clinton’s favor, which would have given her, not Trump, an Electoral College majority. (more…)

  • American Health Care Is Understaffed, Because It Is Overregulated

    New York ambulance
    Ambulance in Manhattan, New York, October 4, 2017 (Unsplash/Benjamin Voros)

    If coronavirus convinces more people our health-care systems need to be overhauled, it may be one of the few good outcomes of the pandemic.

    In the UK, the government-owned National Health Service has long underperformed relative to its rich-country peers. I wrote here in January that the pandemic has underscored the need for reform. If you subscribe to the Financial Times, also read Camilla Cavendish’s story from April about the hundreds of babies who died in English maternity wards between 2000 and 2019 from lack of care. This in the world’s fifth-largest economy!

    The Netherlands’ mixed public-private system is superior, but the country still has a shortage of nurses. It’s something I investigated for Wynia’s Week in December. What I found was that nursing associations, trade unions and researchers have been sounding the alarm for years, yet hospitals continue to underpay nurses and few give their workers the autonomy and flexibility they ask for. Probably because nursing was historically a part-time profession of unmarried women, and doctors and hospital administrators were historically older and male. That hierarchical culture (which I imagine exists in other countries as well) is hard to change, but it is slowly starting to. If you read Dutch, you can glean examples from my second story on the topic.

    In America, excessive licensing requirements and regulations have kept health care understaffed. Pro-market think tanks like the Cato Institute and Niskanen Center have been trying to draw attention to this. Even Vox, hardly a bastion of libertarianism, acknowledges that American health care is, in some ways, overregulated. (more…)

  • Macron Is Wrong to Back Away from Pension Reform

    Boris Johnson Emmanuel Macron
    Prime Ministers Mario Draghi of Italy and Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom speak with President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany during a NATO summit in Brussels, March 24 (10 Downing Street/Andrew Parsons)

    Emmanuel Macron has suggested he could water down French pension reforms in a second term.

    “I am clearly opening the door” to a retirement age of 64, he told BFM TV on Monday, adding that “65 years old was not a dogma.”

    Germany and the Netherlands are raising their retirement ages from 65 to 67.

    Macron also hinted he might call a referendum on the changes. “I don’t want to divide the country.”

    What happened to the brave reformer? (more…)

  • Macron Is Succeeding. He Deserves a Second Term

    Emmanuel Macron
    French president Emmanuel Macron gives a speech in Nîmes, December 6, 2019 (Elysée/Soazig de la Moissonniere)

    When we endorsed Emmanuel Macron in 2017, it was because he was the best candidate to make France competitive and confident again. He has. French voters should give him a second term.

    Macron relaxed French labor laws, which had been among the strictest in the world. Unemployment fell to a thirteen-year low. He eased auditing requirements, streamlined bankruptcy procedures and lowered social charges and taxes for entrepreneurs. Business creation rose 60 percent.

    Foreign investors were impressed. Before the pandemic, France even overtook Germany and the United Kingdom as the top destination of foreign investment in Europe.

    Opponents have lampooned Macron as a “president of the rich” for putting the economy first. But he also enrolled freelancers in public unemployment insurance, extended welfare to one million more households, and made dental services, eyeglasses and hearing aids free.

    France became a leader again in Europe. Macron didn’t win every argument in Brussels, but the EU looks and sounds more French than it did five years ago. Xi Jinping’s authoritarianism and Donald Trump’s isolationism have convinced the other member states to give France’s proposals for European “strategic autonomy” a chance. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has given European defense cooperation, long favored by the French, a new lease on life. With five more years, Macron could put those ideas into action. (more…)

  • Finlandization Is Not an Option for Ukraine

    Motherland Monument Kiev Ukraine
    Motherland Monument in Kiev, Ukraine, December 20, 2018 (Unsplash/Rostislav Artov)

    Since the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War almost eight years ago, self-proclaimed realists in the West have peddled the same solution: “Finlandization”.

    Like Finland (and Austria) during the Cold War, Ukraine would be allowed closer economic integration with the rest of Europe but not NATO membership.

    I doubted this was a solution then, and everything that’s happened since should have put the notion to rest. Ukrainians don’t want to be Finlandized. Vladimir Putin wouldn’t be content with a neutral Ukraine. (more…)

  • Catalans Bear Brunt of Spanish Judicial Activism

    Quim Torra
    Quim Torra enters the parliament of Catalonia to be sworn in as regional president, May 14, 2018 (Parlament de Catalunya/Miguel González de la Fuente)

    Catalan nationalists, up to and including the deposed regional president Carles Puigdemont, see the Spanish judiciary as part of a “deep state” that frustrates Catalan ambitions at every turn.

    That diminishes the meaning of the term “deep state”. Spain isn’t Egypt or Turkey.

    It does have judges who are more political, and more reactionary, than the rest of Western Europe. I saw the consequences after more than two million Catalans defied a Constitutional Court ban to vote in an independence referendum in 2017. (I lived in Barcelona at the time.) Politicians and protest leaders were arrested and imprisoned. Spanish courts overturned a Catalan presidential election. As recently as last week, judges ordered a Catalan lawmaker to give up his seat in the regional parliament. Spanish “lawfare” against the Catalan independence movement has entered its fifth year. (more…)

  • Germany Exports Its Energy Failures

    Olaf Scholz
    German chancellor Olaf Scholz arrives in Rome, Italy, December 20, 2021 (Bundesregierung)

    The Netherlands is forced to drill for almost twice as much natural gas this year as it intended to, partly as a result of higher-than-expected demand from Germany.

    Germany requires an additional 1.1 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas, and the Netherlands is contractually obliged to provide it.

    The Dutch need 2 bcm more for their own consumption plus 1.6 bcm to fill depleted stores for next winter.

    Altogether production must rise from 3.9 to 7.6 bcm — still a fraction of the 72 bcm of gas the Netherlands produced as recently as 2013.

    The Netherlands has small gas fields in the North Sea. The bulk of its gas is extracted from the northeastern region of Groningen. Or was, because the government had promised to shut down production there entirely.

    Years of drilling have caused increasingly violent earthquakes. The government has so far paid €220 million in compensation to owners of damaged homes. Another €250 million may be needed. A parliamentary inquiry into the government’s handling of the damage is due to begin next week.

    Which makes Germany’s request especially awkward for the Netherlands’ prime minister, Mark Rutte. He has asked the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, for alternatives. (more…)

  • Italy Has a Draghi-Sized Problem

    Mario Draghi
    European Central Bank president Mario Draghi walks to a news conference in Frankfurt, October 25, 2018 (ECB/Martin Lamberts)

    Mario Draghi is the best thing to have happened to Italy in many years — and a symptom of its political weakness.

    The former European Central Bank chief, who became prime minister a year ago, has the stature to implement difficult but long-overdue reforms in everything from digitalization to labor law. He has the support of all political parties except the far right. They can hide behind Draghi, and Draghi’s authority, when the reforms inevitably hurt vested interests.

    If Draghi steps down, the whole thing could collapse. Left, right and anti-establishment parties could once again fall out. A next government could cancel or reverse reforms that affect its voters, which in turn would undermine support for countervailing reforms.

    But if Draghi stays as prime minister until the election in 2023, parties need to find someone else to fill Italy’s largely ceremonial presidency, which has a seven-year mandate.

    The eighty year-old Sergio Mattarella is due to step down in February. His successor must be chosen by a conclave of 321 senators, 630 deputies and 58 regional delegates.

    You would think with so many politicians (Italy has the third-largest parliament in the world after China and the UK), it shouldn’t be too hard to find a replacement. But all eyes are on Draghi again. (more…)

  • Give Joe Biden a Break

    Joe Biden
    American president Joe Biden boards a helicopter at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, October 7, 2021 (White House)

    One year into Joe Biden’s presidency, the media consensus is that he is failing.

    The Financial Times reports that the Democrat is trying to “reboot” his “faltering” presidency. The Washington Post believes he is “stumbling”. The Wall Street Journal calls it “flailing”.

    Foreign journalists agree. Britain’s The Guardian newspaper writes that Biden is historically unpopular and “much of his domestic agenda is stalled on Capitol Hill.” Here in the Netherlands, EW Magazine wonders if anyone is still happy with the president while RTL reports that he has “blundered” abroad and “broken” his election promises. (more…)

  • Pandemic Underscores Need for British Health Reform

    Bristol England hospital
    Royal Bristol Infirmary, England (Fotohaus)

    COVID-19 has overwhelmed all health-care systems, but few were as ill prepared as the British.

    The National Health Service (NHS) has almost 100,000 job openings, including close to 40,000 for nurses.

    The pandemic exacerbated the shortages; because doctors and nurses contracted the virus or quit in exhaustion while demand for health care went up.

    Nonessential procedures were delayed. To clear the backlog, and return to the maximum waiting time of eighteen (!) weeks for treatment, the NHS would need an extra 18,000 nurses on top of the 40,000 it is looking to hire anyway. (more…)

  • EU Is Right to Label Nuclear Power Green

    Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant Finland
    Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency visits the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in Finland, November 26, 2020 (TVO/Tapani Karjanlahti)

    The European Commission has proposed to label nuclear power “green” in order to meet the bloc’s ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.

    The EU taxonomy still needs to be approved by the European Parliament and member states, but it seems unlikely they will want to unwind a hard-won compromise.

    Once approved, it should unleash private-sector investment in green industries.

    In a concession to coal-dependent Germany, which is phasing out nuclear power, the taxonomy would also consider natural gas “green” until 2030.

    Ten member states, including Belgium, Finland and France, had argued for including nuclear power. An eleventh, the Netherlands, just announced plans to phase out natural gas and build two more nuclear plants. (more…)

  • Expropriation Unlikely in Berlin, But So Is Cheaper Housing

    Berlin Germany
    Tower blocks in Berlin, Germany, May 3, 2020 (Unsplash/Sebastian Herrmann)

    Berliners voted in September to expropriate apartments from large landlords. 56 percent supported the proposal in a referendum, which would put around 243,000 of the city’s 1.5 million rental apartments in public ownership.

    I argued against expropriation at the time, and have written a follow-up for the Dutch opinion website Wynia’s Week in which I argue the city is unlikely to go through with it. It is a bad proposal, one that is opposed by even the center-left, and it may not stand up in court.

    Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean either the city or the federal government is likely to ease Berlin’s housing shortage. (more…)

  • “Repeal” of Spanish Labor Reforms Is Limited

    Yolanda Díaz María Jesús Montero José Luis Escrivá
    Spanish labor, finance and social security ministers Yolanda Díaz, María Jesús Montero and José Luis Escrivá give a news conference in Madrid, May 27 (La Moncloa)

    Spanish employers and trade unions have done a deal with Pedro Sánchez’ socialist government to overturn several labor reforms of his conservative predecessor, Mariano Rajoy.

    I argued against repeal. Rajoy’s liberalizations helped bring down unemployment, from a peak of 26 percent to 14 percent before the pandemic, and encouraged business growth. They allowed companies to opt out of collective bargaining agreements and expanded trial periods for employees.

    The reforms did not create more precarious jobs. The share of part-time, temporary and self-employed workers has barely changed in a decade.

    Temp work will nevertheless be restricted. Luckily the rest of Sánchez’ changes are mild. (more…)

  • How to Keep an Empire for a Thousand Years

    The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe's History

    Keeping a thousand years of European history readable is no small feat, but Peter H. Wilson manages it.

    The Holy Roman Empire touches on everything from high politics to peasant life. Wilson’s central insight: the empire’s perceived weaknesses were its strengths.

    The Holy Roman Empire changed composition through the centuries. Its internal organization was in a constant state of flux. Emperors had to negotiate to come to power and compromise to stay in power. Autonomy given to one city or prince did not necessarily apply to another. For a long time, such agreements were not even written down. The empire refused to lay down one law, one language, one religion. It ended up a patchwork of overlapping competencies and jurisdictions that kept bureaucrats, lawyers and politicians busy for centuries. (more…)

  • Don’t Fall for Putin’s Propaganda About Ukraine

    Vladimir Putin
    Russian president Vladimir Putin listens during a meeting in Voronezh, August 5, 2014 (Kremlin)

    With Russia possibly on the verge of escalating the Donbas War, it’s worth repudiating Vladimir Putin’s justifications for invading Ukraine.

    This summer, Putin explained at length why he believes Russia and Ukraine are inseparable. His is a selective version of history that is illuminating insofar as it reveals Russian attitudes toward Belarusians, Ukrainians and other Slavic peoples in Eastern Europe; it’s not an excuse for denying Ukrainians their right to self-determination. (more…)