France guarding the rest of Europe, that's funny! The connection had to be dropped because it did not have the capacity to supply Spain with enough power at that moment. And the connection is so small, because the French do not want competition from cheaper Spanish power generators.
The far right in Germany now calls themselves pacifists :-D
Nevertheless, I would feel much safer living in a EU that has serious nuclear deterrence capabilities.
well France is still in the EU and has nukes (including some in nuclear submarines), for what it's worth. Though it's not a given that the French would use their nukes to defend the EU.
You must have dreamed this. There is no blockade against Kaliningrad. Especially no sea blockade.
In fact, there is a EU treaty in place that ensures overland transport to Kaliningrad via Lithuania.
What in fact is in place is widespread GPS jamming done by the Russians from Kaliningrad, and that impacts ships sailing the baltic sea.
It's a scale between sanctions and other forms of blocking trade. Cutting off Kaliningrad will be a key part of punishing Russia as it moves more into Ukraine. There have been many instances of deliveries turned back through lithuania, sometimes causing massive disruptions to shipping to Kaliningrad. There has been a lot of threats from Russia that if the blockade gets to be fully enforced that they will respond militarily. Having total access to this port is going to be the next phase of the Russian war.
Regardless, without Kaliningrad being a factor, it is still Denmark's responsibility to control those waterways to deny Russia access to the North Atlantic. Having to reinforce Greenland is taking resources away from Denmark enforcing its area in the Baltic Sea.
There is a lot of information about it over the past few years from more international sources. And no, it's not imagined.
The really debatable issue is with the reported attempted agreement by the Trump admin and attempts by Russia to sort of trade Ukraine to Russia for Venezuela. If this turns out to be true, and you can find domestic reporting on this offer having been made a few years ago, then places like Kaliningrad, Estonia and other former Soviet Republics become the next targets.
I think that might be a step too far, rather I'd guess the US just knows the Russian systems very well. The success of the latest campaign against Iran shows that too, and if anything they learnt even more from that.
Either way, although Trump might every now and then be a bit too friendly with Putin, but a) cooperation at this scale and b) the bad looks and damage to Russian investments I think makes it seem unlikely. Putin doesn't stick his neck out for others unless it serves him. I'm not that well read on the Russian involvement in the area though...
Who might be the first European head of state or similar they lift out? Ursula von der Leyen? :-D
Air defenses in the EU does not seem to be in the best shape, the way Russian drones seem to operate without trouble.
All variants of rent control etc. have been tried in Europe and have miserably failed. Quite the opposite, rents have been rising even more, and new construction has been reduced due to new politically induced risks.
Examples: Berlin, Barcelona
But as Barcelona shows, there is a feedback loop benefiting leftist populist politicians:
Higher rents, lower housing supply -> people frustrated -> leftist populists get more votes -> more stupid regulation -> even higher rents, even lower housing supply -> people more frustrated -> ...
Berlin never really had rent control. It's been a few months before the law was abolished for constitutional technicalities. Everybody knew this was a possibility, so you can't make any conclusions about it. Bringing it up is pure propaganda. Nothing failed economically!
We have a federal law which in theory could slow down price progression, but it is rarely applied. It also doesn't govern newly build apartments, so criticism usually falls short there too...
