Europe at a glance

Paris

Ugly campaign: The French presidential election campaign grew more rancorous this week, ahead of first-round voting on 10 April. Éric Zemmour, the farright candidate, was widely condemned for seeming to tolerate chants of “Killer Macron” at a rally last weekend. The chants were made in response to his claims that the president’s immigration policies had led to fatal terrorist attacks. Macron called Zemmour a “disgrace”, and sought to cast himself as the guardian of national unity, in the face of extremists sowing hatred and discord. He remains the strong favourite to win; however, many voters were still undecided this week.

Budapest

Crucial election: Hungarians will cast their votes this weekend in what is expected to be the closest general election for years. Viktor Orbán, of the right-wing Fidesz party, has been PM since 2010, making him the EU’s longest-serving leader; he is also one of its most controversial. His opponents accuse him of trying to turn the country into a one-party state by politicising the media and other civic institutions. In 2014, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe called Hungary’s elections “free but not fair”, and in 2018 it said the vote was marked by an “overlap between state and ruling-party resources, undermining contestants’ ability to compete on an equal basis”. This time, Orbán’s victory is not assured, owing to six opposition parties uniting behind a single candidate, Péter Márki-Zay – a popular centre-right town mayor. However, polls this week were still giving Fidesz a very narrow lead over the opposition coalition.

Madrid

Lorry drivers’ strike: Life in Spain seemed finally to be going back to normal this week following a 15-day strike by lorry drivers that had caused food shortages and widespread chaos. The drivers went on strike last month to demand state aid for the transport and logistics industry in the face of escalating fuel prices that have since been driven even higher by the conflict in Ukraine. Backed by haulage firms, they blocked roads and ports, and conducted noisy go-slow protests. The unrest then spread to other sectors, leading to mass protests by farmers and fishermen, sporadic factory closures and demos by taxi drivers. Most of the strikers went back to work after the government announced a s16bn package aimed at easing the price pain, including a fuel subsidy of 20 cents per litre. But strikes were ongoing this week in Galicia, Asturias, the Basque Country and Ciudad Real.

Berlin

Cutting ties: The German government has announced details of its plans to massively scale back its reliance on Russian energy. Robert Habeck, the vice-chancellor and economic minister, said Germany expected to cut its imports of Russian oil in half by the summer, and stop buying it altogether by the end of the year. It will stop importing Russian coal by the autumn, and reduce its imports of Russian gas by 90% within two years. Last year, Russia supplied Germany with 55% of its gas, 52% of its coal and 34% of its oil. Berlin had argued strongly against an immediate embargo on Russian oil and gas, saying that this would devastate its economy. However, Habeck said that German energy firms were already dumping Russian suppliers at “a crazy speed”. Instead of relying on Russian energy, he said that Germany will import more hydrogen and liquefied natural gas and invest more heavily in renewables.

Moscow

De-escalating the nuclear threat: Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has sought to deescalate fears that Russia might resort to nuclear weapons. Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow would use its nuclear arsenal only in the case of a “threat to the existence” of Russia – and that it would not consider its use in the event of a third party becoming involved in the war in Ukraine. “Any outcome of the operation, of course, is not a reason for usage of a nuclear weapon,” he told the US broadcaster PBS. “We have a security concept that very clearly states that only when there is a threat for existence of the state, in our country, we can use and we will actually use nuclear weapons to eliminate the threat for the existence of our country.”