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Tony Barber

European Comment Editor

Tony Barber is European Comment Editor of the Financial Times. He is a former foreign correspondent in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland, the former Soviet Union, the US and the former Yugoslavia.

In 2012 he was awarded the Medal of Gratitude by the Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk in recognition of his work in support of freedom and democracy in Poland. He wrote the introduction to Mud Sweeter Than Honey, a book on communist Albania by the author Margo Rejmer.

Email Tony Barber @TonyBarber8  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)
  • Saturday, 6 July, 2024
    ObituaryIsmail Kadare
    Ismail Kadare, Albanian author, 1936-2024

    A novelist who survived one of eastern Europe’s most vicious tyrannies and drew comparisons with Kafka and Orwell

    Ismail Kadare
  • Thursday, 4 July, 2024
    Viktor Orbán
    Hungary’s presidency is a symptom of deeper EU malaise

    Franco-German frictions and the advance of hard-right parties threaten trouble when Europe needs a common front

    Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
  • Tuesday, 2 July, 2024
    The best books of the week
    Serbia and Albania: precarious states in a volatile neighbourhood

    Two impressive new histories about the Balkan neighbours show how the traumas of the past have left deep traces in the present

  • Saturday, 22 June, 2024
    Europe Express
    Le pari de la dissolution se retourne contre Emmanuel Macron

    L’extrême droite se rapproche du pouvoir et la gauche radicale évoque l’esprit de 1936, aux dépens du bloc centriste

    «Macron c’est toi qui est ubuesque», dit une pancarte
  • Saturday, 22 June, 2024
    Europe Express
    France’s political extremes exploit Macron’s weakness

    The far right scents an opportunity, the left evokes the spirit of 1936 and liberal democracy is squeezed in the middle

    “Macron it is you who is absurd”, a placard held by a protester reads
  • Friday, 21 June, 2024
    The FT’s guide to the best books to read this summer
    Best summer books of 2024: History

    Tony Barber selects his best mid-year reads

  • Saturday, 8 June, 2024
    Europe Express
    The EU’s post-elections future Premium content

    Hard choices await the 27-nation bloc over the next five years — and there’s always the risk of an unanticipated emergency

    A crowd holds up Ukrainian flags
  • Saturday, 1 June, 2024
    Europe Express
    Meloni’s hard-right bid to shake up the EU Premium content

    The Italian premier wants to upend the centrist consensus in Brussels but economic weakness limits her country’s influence

    Giorgia Meloni speaks via video link at a Vox rally
  • Saturday, 18 May, 2024
    Europe Express
    Russia and Ukraine: two economies at war Premium content

    Government reshuffle underlines Putin’s militarisation effort as Kyiv fights on with western support

    A slogan in support of the Russian armed forces reads: ‘Price of Russia! Senior sergeant Sergei Prokofyev’ as an armoured vehicle passes by
  • Tuesday, 14 May, 2024
    EU enlargement
    Defiant regional leaders resist the road map to EU membership

    The heads of Serbia, the Bosnian Serbs, North Macedonia and Georgia oppose the steps needed to join the club

  • Saturday, 11 May, 2024
    Europe Express
    Pluses and minuses of the EU recovery fund Premium content

    More large-scale investment programmes are possible despite the mixed results of Europe’s post-pandemic plan

    European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister
  • Thursday, 9 May, 2024
    ReviewHistory books
    The First Cold War — when Russia and Britain were at odds

    Barbara Emerson examines how the two countries kept hostilities at bay and warns of the high-handedness of foreign imperialism

  • Saturday, 4 May, 2024
    Europe Express
    France loses faith in Macron Premium content

    The president’s centrist alliance faces a drubbing in EU elections amid growing pressure on government finances

    Macron at the Sorbonne university
  • Monday, 29 April, 2024
    German politics
    Scandals hurt the far right less than its opponents hope

    AfD voters like its hardline policies and see the party as a victim of establishment prejudice

    An AfD event on Saturday to kick off the party’s European election campaign
  • Saturday, 27 April, 2024
    Europe Express
    Europe’s hard-right parties differ in important ways Premium content

    Hard-right parties in France, Germany and Italy are hungry for success in the EU elections but national differences matter

    Senior AfD politician Maximilian Krah
  • Saturday, 20 April, 2024
    Europe Express
    Balkan clouds over EU enlargement Premium content

    Friction between Bulgaria and North Macedonia may be about to take a turn for the worse

    Tens of thousands of people gathered in North Macedonia’s capital Skopje to protest against a French proposal that seeks to end a dispute with Bulgaria that is blocking North Macedonia’s bid to join the EU
  • Saturday, 13 April, 2024
    Europe Express
    Nerve-testing times pose question of European nuclear deterrent Premium content

    Amid rising concerns about the US security guarantee, policymakers mull how to ensure the continent’s defence

    Vanguard-class submarine HMS Vigilant, one of the UK’s four nuclear warhead-carrying submarines at HM Naval Base Clyde, Faslane, Scotland
  • Thursday, 11 April, 2024
    ReviewHistory books
    A Nasty Little War — when the west tried to overturn the Russian revolution

    Anna Reid’s vivid history of an ill-judged intervention in 1918 demonstrates that we underestimate Russia at our peril

    A black-and-white photo of troops marching down a street in 1918
  • Wednesday, 10 April, 2024
    Central Asia
    Terror attack creates a central Asian dilemma for Putin

    Tajiks are among those blamed for the massacre but Russia’s war economy depends on immigrant Muslim workers

    A border crossing point between Kazakhstan and Russia
  • Saturday, 6 April, 2024
    Europe Express
    Europe’s political aims and its economic strength are out of balance Premium content

    Low growth and strained public finances put pressure on policies for Ukraine, defence and climate change

    Protesters rally against the French government’s pension reform in Paris, March 2023
  • Saturday, 23 March, 2024
    Europe Express
    The EU pursues make-believe in Bosnia Premium content

    Propping up an ethnically based political system is no way to prepare the former Yugoslav republic for entry to the bloc

    Bosnian Serb politician Milorad Dodik
  • Saturday, 16 March, 2024
    Europe Express
    Migrants and strongmen: the EU’s north Africa headache Premium content

    European leaders are desperate to curb irregular arrivals but risk replicating their pre-Arab Spring policies

    A Libyan coast guardsman stands on a boat during the rescue of 147 people attempting to cross illegally into Europe, off the coastal town of Zawiyah, near Tripoli in 2017
  • Saturday, 9 March, 2024
    Europe Express
    Gaza war agitates a divided Europe Premium content

    Political temperature is being driven up by a conflict over which the EU has relatively little influence

  • Tuesday, 5 March, 2024
    Russian politics
    Post-Soviet neighbours navigate the orbit of Russian power

    The course of the Ukraine war will weigh heavily on Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia

    Vladimir Putin greets President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus in St Petersburg
  • Saturday, 2 March, 2024
    Europe Express
    Putin at home and at war Premium content

    The autocrat’s ceremonial re-election later this month will not dispel questions about his regime’s longer-term stability

    Cars drive past screens showing Russian President Vladimir Putin, February 29
Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

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