European countries should not rush into social media bans for children, human rights adviser Michael O’Flaherty told POLITICO. The comments come as many EU countries push to restrict minors’ access to social media, citing mental health concerns. In France, the parliament’s upper house is this week debating restrictions that President Emmanuel Macron has said will be in place as soon as September. Such bans are neither “proportionate nor necessary,” said O’Flaherty, the commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, the continent’s top human rights body, adding that there “are other ways to address the curse of abusive material online.” The debate on how to protect children from the harms of social media “goes straight to bans without looking at all the other options that could be in play,” he told POLITICO. Restricting access to social media presents “issues of human rights, because a child has a right to receive information just like anybody else.” O’Flaherty’s concerns come amid live discussions on the merits and effectiveness of bans in Europe. Australia became the first country in the world to ban minors under 16 from creating accounts on social media platforms like Instagram in late 2025, and Brazil moved forward with its own measures last week. Now France, Denmark, Spain and Greece are among the EU countries heading toward bans, albeit on different timelines. Proponents argue that age-related restrictions setting a minimum age for the most addictive social media platforms are vital to protect children’s physical and mental health. Critics say that bans are ineffective and are detrimental to privacy because they require users to verify themselves online. O’Flaherty argued that — while children’s rights to access information could be curtailed if that overall limited their risks — any restrictions need to be proportionate and necessary. That must follow a serious effort by the EU to tackle illegal and harmful content on social media, he said, which hasn’t happened yet. “We haven’t remotely tried hard enough yet to ensure effective oversight of the platforms.” The human rights chief praised the EU’s digital laws as world-leading, including the Digital Services Act, which seeks to protect kids from systemic risks on online platforms — but said it wasn’t being policed strongly enough. “We have a very piecemeal enforcement of the Digital Services Act and the other relevant rulebook right across Europe. It’s very much dependent on the goodwill and the capacity of the different governments to be serious about it,” he said. Governments have “an uneven record” in that regard, he said. The European Commission, in charge of enforcing the DSA on large social media platforms, is considering its own measures. | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images EU countries must make sure they have exhausted all other solutions before heading for the extreme measures of bans, he said. “I don’t see much sign of that effort.” Still, Denmark, Spain and Greece are among the EU countries heading toward bans, although they are on vastly different timelines. The European Commission, in charge of enforcing the DSA on large social media platforms, is considering its own measures. Countries like Greece have called on the Commission to go forth with an EU-wide ban to avoid fragmentation across the bloc. President Ursula von der Leyen has convened a panel of experts to advise her on next steps, which is expected to give its results by the summer.

ZAGROS MOUNTAINS, Iraq — About 5 kilometers from Iran, aircraft roar overhead. Are the planes American, Israeli, Iranian? The Kurdish fighter shrugged and urged haste. The final stretch to his militia’s base could be reached only on foot, along a steep path covered in loose rock. Out in the open, everyone is vulnerable. A tunnel leads to the underground base in a sliver of the Zagros Mountains in northeastern Iraq. The Iranian-Kurdish guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Free Life Party, is careful to keep its exact location secret. Visitors must switch their smartphones to flight mode before handing them over upon entry. The Kurdistan Free Life Party is in waiting mode, poised along Iran’s western border to move in if a weakened regime opens up a path to strike it. The Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, which includes POLITICO, was granted rare access to the group’s base and its members, who discussed its ideology, goals and under what conditions they’d go into Iran. Militia representative Bahar Avrin said in an interview inside the base that the organization already has elements “inside” Iran, and that deploying a larger force against Tehran is ultimately a question of the right timing and conditions. The border between northern Iraq and Iran runs through the Zagros Mountains and is considered porous — for smugglers, locals and the handful of militias operating there. The Kurdistan Free Life Party, often referred to by its Kurdish acronym PJAK, is part of a coalition of six Kurdish militia groups that want to topple Iran’s Islamist regime and usher in a government that is more democratic and grants more rights and autonomy to Iranian Kurds in Iran. President Donald Trump has said Iraqi and Iranian Kurdish groups are “willing” to participate in a ground offensive against Tehran — but he has said he ruled out the idea to avoid making the war “any more complex than it already is.” A Kurdish assault could spark a sectarian power struggle that destabilizes Iran. And key U.S. allies with their own Kurdish minorities — Iraq and Turkey — have warned the idea could spread unrest elsewhere in the Middle East. The idea could nonetheless prove tempting for Trump as the war, now in its third week, drags on. The ruling regime in Tehran has not capitulated despite punishing airstrikes that have killed scores of its top leaders. Trump could find himself looking for military options that do not trigger the political risk that would accompany deployment of U.S. ground troops. “The president never takes anything fully off the table,” said Victoria Coates, who served as deputy national security adviser for the Middle East in Trump’s first term. “And if you were considering this, this is the last thing you would want the Iranians to know.” TUNNEL VISION PJAK looks ready to go into a fight, with a base that suggests an organized military operation. It consists of a tunnel system running through the mountain’s interior, with electricity and running water. On the walls hang photographs of fallen fighters — many of them young, women and men in their 20s and 30s. Four monitors mounted to the walls display the surrounding terrain outside. Motion sensors control the cameras; when a bird flutters across the screen, the image switches to it automatically. In a dark tunnel, a 20-year-old fighter holding an assault rifle introduced herself as Zilan. Her day begins at 5:30 a.m. and follows a strict schedule. “Our daily life is based on discipline,” she said. Ideological instruction aims at building a democratic society; military training focuses on defending the Kurdish people.Watch: The Conversation “We never want the help of foreign powers like Israel and the United States,” she said. “We are an independent party.” The Kurdistan Free Life Party is one of several Iranian-Kurdish groups in Iraq. In 1979, Kurds in Iran supported the revolution against the shah. When the new Islamic Republic rejected their demands for autonomy, heavy fighting broke out in Iranian Kurdistan. Numerous groups relocated to Iraq, where they now operate freely in northern Iraq, which is largely autonomous from the rest of the country and detached from the central government in Baghdad. The six members of the political and military alliance are not in agreement about whether to invade if called on, and under what conditions they would embark on a full-scale war for their political goals. Some parties appear eager to take on a ground offensive in Iran. Reza Kaabi, secretary-general of the Komala of the Toilers of Kurdistan, has even set out a blueprint, declaring a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone to be a prerequisite for any Kurdish invasion. There is a general sense in the region that PJAK — given its proximity to the Iranian border and its relatively strong military presence — would be one of the first of the six Kurdish militias in the coalition to go into Iran if given U.S. military support. But PJAK publicly rejects the idea that they would do so at the bidding of Washington. It’s a stance rooted in distrust of the U.S. — not least because the United States abruptly withdrew support from the Kurds in Syria in January. Asked under what conditions PJAK would launch an offensive across the Iraqi-Iranian border, Avrin declined to answer. But, she said, her organization has “never waited for any force to bring about change.” CNN recently reported that just a few days into the Iran war, Trump spoke with Mustafa Hijri, the secretary-general of another group in the Kurdish-Iranian opposition alliance: the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, or PDKI. It is one of the oldest Iranian-Kurdish opposition parties and has maintained armed units operating from exile in northern Iraq. PDKI executive committee member Hassan Sharafi said in an interview that he could “neither confirm nor deny” whether such a conversation had taken place, in part because of the limited contact among the group’s leadership maintained for security reasons. Sharafi said the PDKI had “no operational relations” with the United States on the ground in Iraq. At the political level, however, contacts exist: “In Washington, Paris, and London we have contacts, and our representatives there maintain relations. Our relations are diplomatic and political.” Such links, he said, were long-standing: “For more than 20 years we have had relations with the United States and with all European countries. We have contacts with all of them.” THE ROAD TO TEHRAN From Tehran’s perspective, the militias represent a serious threat. Iranian artillery has struck in the border region multiple times in recent days, hitting villages near the frontier. These attacks primarily affect civilians. The Kurdish guerrillas sheltered inside the mountain remain protected. Other militia groups, whose positions are located in more exposed terrain, have also come under fire. A 2023 security agreement between Iran and Iraq obliged Baghdad to disarm Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups, dismantle their bases and relocate them deeper into Iraqi territory. Now that the Kurdish groups are openly considering an offensive in Iran, Tehran has concluded that the agreement has failed, according to Kamaran Osman, an Iraq-based human rights officer with a nonprofit organization called Community Peacemaker Teams that monitors human rights abuses in conflict zones. “Now it believes it must target, destroy and defeat these groups,” Osman said, speaking in the Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah, about a two-hour drive from the PJAK base. As of Monday, his organization had recorded 307 Iranian attacks on the Kurdistan region in Iraq, leaving eight people killed and 51 injured. He sees only grim scenarios for the Kurdish people in Iran. “If the regime falls, there is a risk of civil war in Iran,” he said. If the regime survives, he fears more retaliation from Tehran against Kurds in Iraq — both Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups and the Kurdistan Regional Government. Should northern Iraq become destabilized, a power vacuum could emerge. The last time order eroded here, in 2014, ISIS militants seized control of a swathe of territory stretching from Iraq to Syria, a landmass nearly as large as the United Kingdom. PJAK has ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a militant group that has fought against the Turkish government, and is listed as a terrorist organization there — as well as in the EU and the U.S. The United States has a troubled history of making big promises to ethnic Kurdish groups — and then abandoning them at the worst possible moment. After calling on Iraqis to rise up and overthrow then-dictator Saddam Hussein in 1991, President George H.W. Bush declined to intervene when Hussein began slaughtering Iraqi Kurds who took up the U.S. president’s call. And as recently as this January, the Trump administration stood by as a Syrian Kurdish militia that led the U.S.-backed campaign to defeat ISIS just a few years ago was attacked by Syria’s new government. The big question for U.S. policymakers may be how much they would need to support a Kurdish assault on Iran to make it successful. Former U.S. intelligence and special forces experts believe it would require the type of commitment he might prefer to avoid: large infusions of cash and weapons, close air support, and potentially even on-the-ground aid from U.S. special forces. Even then, a Kurdish-led attack could fizzle, leaving Trump with two grim choices: Abandon the Kurds, or come to their rescue with even greater U.S. combat support. “It would require a lot of commitment on the U.S. side with a very unclear end state,” said Alex Plitsas, a former senior Pentagon official who worked on special operations and counterterrorism policy in the Middle East. While Coates cautioned that Trump had other, better options at hand, she argued that even modest U.S. military support for the Kurds — such as small arms shipments and limited air support — could threaten Iran’s increasingly brittle regime. The key, she said, was arming the exiled Kurds in Iraq in conjunction with other Iranian resistance groups inside the country to avoid the perception it was coming from outside. “The way this is going to be effective,” Coates said, “is not by a bunch of Iraqis invading Iran.” Drüten of WELT reported from Iraq. Sakellariadis reported from Washington. The Axel Springer Global Reporters Network is a multi-publication initiative publishing scoops, investigations, interviews, op-eds and analysis that reverberate across the world. It connects journalists from Axel Springer brands — including POLITICO, Business Insider, WELT, BILD, and Onet — on major stories for an international audience. Their ambitious reporting stretches across Axel Springer platforms: online, print, TV and audio. Together, the outlets reach hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

A Swedish citizen was executed in Iran on Wednesday, according to a statement released by Sweden’s Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard. “It is with dismay that I have received information that a Swedish citizen has been executed in Iran earlier today,” Stenergard wrote, adding “the responsibility for this rests solely with Iran.” The executed man, who has not been named, was arrested in June 2025 according to the Foreign Ministry. In her statement, Stenergard said that Sweden has repeatedly raised the issue with Iranian representatives, stressing the expectation of a fair trial and due legal proceedings. “It is clear to us that the legal process that led to the Swedish citizen being executed has not been fair,” Stenergard wrote. “The death penalty is an inhumane, cruel and irreversible punishment. Sweden, together with the rest of ‌the ⁠EU, condemns its application in all circumstances” she added “Sweden will continue to condemn serious human rights violations in Iran.” The execution takes place during the third week of the U.S. and Israel’s ongoing war with Iran, where the regime has a long record of human rights violations, most recently underscored by a deadly crackdown on nationwide protests. Iran also has a history of detaining Western nationals, including Dr Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish academic who has also been imprisoned in Iran since 2016 and has been sentenced to death on charges of spying for Israel; and Johan Floderus, an EU official who was released as part of a deal with Tehran in 2024. In comments to Swedish media, Stenergard said she had been made aware that the execution was imminent late Tuesday and had tried to make contact with her Iranian counterpart, to no avail. Stenergard has summoned the Iranian ambassador in Stockholm.

EU countries on Tuesday agreed to amend European law to allow MEPs to cast proxy votes in the last stage of pregnancy, and six months after giving birth. “No elected representative should have to choose between serving her voters and having children,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola told POLITICO in a statement. “By modernizing our rules, we are standing up for fairness, equality and a Parliament that truly reflects the people it serves.” MEPs have been campaigning for years to change rules which state that they must be physically present to cast a ballot in the European Parliament, regardless of their stage of pregnancy or how soon it is after the birth of their child. In an interview with POLITICO in 2023, Dutch MEP Lara Wolters said the rules sent a “bad signal, especially for young women.” European affairs ministers meeting in the General Affairs Council on Tuesday voted in favor of a plan to allow MEPs to cast proxy ballots in the final three months of pregnancy and the first six months after childbirth. A senior EU diplomat told POLITICO that the Council will now need to forward the text to the European Parliament for its official green light, before it returns to the Council for final approval. The proposal will then have to be ratified by EU member countries before it can enter into force. The plan “represents a positive step for democratic representation,” the diplomat said, and will help MEPs “reconcile private life and work and ensure inclusive representation.” The EU aims to implement the proposal by the next European Parliament election in 2029, as reported in Tuesday’s POLITICO Brussels Playbook. Metsola said on social media: “We’re not there yet, but we are turning this commitment into reality.”

Hungary is pressing the European Union to suspend tariffs and extra duties on fertilizer imports from Russia and Belarus as the war in Iran threatens to drive up global food prices. Such a move would boost a key source of revenue in funding Moscow’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In a letter to European commissioners on Monday, Hungarian Agriculture Minister István Nagy warned that rising global fertilizer prices and supply uncertainty exacerbated by the war in Iran risk squeezing EU farmers and pushing up food costs. He called for the levies on Russian and Belarusian products to be temporarily reduced to zero, warning that Hungary could face lower crop yields if access to cheaper imports remains restricted. The country produces only nitrogen fertilizers domestically and relies on foreign supplies of phosphorus and potash. The EU tightened duties on fertilizers from Russia and Belarus in 2025 after imports rose in the years following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The increase raised concern that Russia was redirecting gas exports hit by sanctions into fertilizer production to sustain export revenues. Russian shipments to the EU were still worth around €2 billion last year, but volumes fell sharply in early 2026 as the new levies began to bite. Iran’s effective blockage of the Strait of Hormuz is driving up the cost of fertilizer by tying up supplies of both the fuel and raw materials needed to produce it. Budapest is also pushing the EU to relax its ban on Russian gas to ease price pressures — an idea roundly rejected by Brussels.

The 21st century is more likely to belong to Beijing than to Washington — at least that’s the view from four key U.S. allies. Swaths of the public in Canada, Germany, France and the U.K. have soured on the U.S., driven by President Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions, according to recent results from The POLITICO Poll. Respondents in these countries increasingly see China as a more dependable partner than the U.S. and believe the Asian economic colossus is leading on advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence. Critically, Europeans surveyed see it as possible to reduce reliance on the U.S. but harder to reduce reliance on China — suggesting newfound entanglements that could drastically tip the balance of global power away from the West. Here are five key takeaways from the poll highlighting the pivot from the U.S. to China. The POLITICO Poll — in partnership with U.K. polling firm Public First — found that respondents in those four allied countries believe it is better to depend on China than the U.S. following Trump’s turbulent return to office. That appears to be driven by Trump’s disruption, not by a newfound stability in China: In a follow-up question, a majority of respondents in both Canada and Germany agreed that any attempts to get closer to China are because the U.S. has become harder to depend on — not because China itself has become a more reliable partner. Many respondents in France (38 percent) and the U.K. (42 percent) also shared that sentiment. Under Trump’s “America First” ethos, Washington has upended the “rules-based international order” of the past with sharp-elbowed policies that have isolated the U.S. on the global stage. This includes slow-walking aid to Ukraine, threatening NATO allies with economic punishment and withdrawing from major international institutions, including the World Health Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Council. His punitive liberation day tariffs, as well as threats to annex Greenland and make Canada “the 51st state,” have only further strained relationships with top allies. Beijing has seized the moment to cultivate better business ties with European countries looking for an alternative to high U.S. tariffs on their exports. Last October, Beijing hosted a forum aimed at shoring up mutual investments with Europe. More recently, senior Chinese officials described EU-China ties as a partnership rather than a rivalry. “The administration has assisted the Chinese narrative by acting like a bully,” Mark Lambert, former deputy assistant secretary of State for China and Taiwan in the Biden administration, told POLITICO. “Everyone still recognizes the challenges China poses — but now, Washington no longer works in partnership and is only focused on itself.” These sentiments are already being translated into action. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney declared a “rupture” between Ottawa and Washington in January and backed that rhetoric by sealing a trade deal with Beijing that same month. The U.K. inked several high-value export deals with China not long after, while both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have returned from recent summits in Beijing with Chinese purchase orders for European products. Respondents across all four allied countries are broadly supportive of efforts to create some distance from the U.S. — and say they’re also more dependent on China. In Canada, 48 percent said it would be possible to reduce reliance on the U.S. and believe their government should do so. In the U.K., 42 percent said reducing reliance on the U.S. sounded good in theory, but were skeptical it could happen in practice. By contrast, fewer respondents across those countries believe it would actually be possible to reduce reliance on China — a testament to Beijing’s dominance of global supply chains. Young adults may be drawn to China as an alternative to U.S. cultural hegemony. Respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 were significantly more supportive than their older peers of building a closer relationship with China. A recent study commissioned by the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences — a Beijing-based think tank — suggests most young Europeans get their information about China and Chinese life through social media. Nearly 70 percent of those aged 18 to 25 said they rely on social media and other short-form video platforms for information on China. And the media they consume is likely overwhelmingly supportive of China, as TikTok, one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, was built by Chinese company ByteDance and has previously been accused of suppressing content deemed negative toward China. According to Alicja Bachulska, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, younger generations believe the U.S. has led efforts to depict China as an authoritarian regime and a threat to democracy, while simultaneously degrading its own democratic values. The trend “pushes a narrative that ‘we’ve been lied to’ about what China is,” said Bachulska, as “social sentiment among the youth turns against the U.S.” “It’s an expression of dissatisfaction with the state of U.S. politics,” she added. There’s a clear consensus among those surveyed in Europe and Canada that China is winning the global tech race — a coveted title central to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s grand policy vision. China is leading the U.S. and other Western nations in the development of electric batteries and robotics, while Chinese designs have also become the global standard in electric vehicles and solar panels. “There has been a real vibe shift in global perception of Chinese tech and innovation dominance,” said Sarah Beran, who served as deputy chief of mission in the U.S. embassy in Beijing during the Biden administration. This digital rat race is most apparent in the fast-paced development of artificial intelligence. China has poured billions of dollars into research initiatives, poaching top tech talent from U.S. universities and funding state-backed tech firms to advance its interests in AI. The investment appears to be paying off — a plurality of respondents from Canada, Germany, France and the U.K. believe that China is more likely to develop the first superintelligent AI. But these advancements have done little to change American minds. A majority of respondents in the U.S. still see American-made tech as superior to Chinese tech, even in the realm of AI. As Washington and its allies grow more estranged, the perception of the U.S. as the dominant world power is in retreat — though most Americans don’t see it that way. About half of all respondents in Canada, Germany, France and the U.K. believe that China is rapidly becoming a more consequential superpower. This is particularly true among those who say the U.S. is no longer a positive force for the world. By contrast, 63 percent of respondents in the U.S. believe their nation will maintain its dominance in 10 years — reflecting major disparities in beliefs about global power dynamics between the U.S. and its European allies. This view of China as the world’s power center may not have been entirely organic. The U.S. has accused Beijing of pouring billions of dollars into international information manipulation efforts, including state-backed media initiatives and the deployment of tools to stifle online criticism of China and its policies. Some fear that a misplaced belief among U.S. allies in the inevitability of China surpassing the U.S. as a global superpower could be helping accelerate Beijing’s rise. “Europe is capable of defending itself against threats from China and contesting China’s vision of a more Sinocentric, authoritarian-friendly world order,” said Henrietta Levin, former National Security Council director for China in the Biden administration. “But if Europe believes this is impossible and does not try to do so, the survey results may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” METHOLODGY The POLITICO Poll was conducted from Feb. 6 to Feb. 9, surveying 10,289 adults online, with at least 2,000 respondents each from the U.S., Canada, U.K., France and Germany. Results for each country were weighted to be representative on dimensions including age, gender and geography, and have an overall margin of sampling error of ±2 percentage points for each country. Smaller subgroups have higher margins of error.

STRASBOURG — The far-right groups in the European Parliament claim President Roberta Metsola broke a promise to hold a minute of silence for French activist Quentin Deranque. Deranque, 23, died after receiving blows to the head during a fight outside a conference featuring hard-left France Unbowed MEP Rima Hassan at a university in Lyon. The French National Assembly held a minute of silence on Feb. 17. “We are in fact condemning the attitude of Ms Metsola, whom our French delegation and our Patriots group had asked to hold a minute of silence here in tribute to Quentin,” Jean-Paul Garraud, head of the French National Rally in the European Parliament, wrote on social media. “Metsola had indeed promised us this minute of silence … This minute of silence was not granted.” The chief of the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group — René Aust of the Alternative for Germany — told Metsola during a meeting of political group leaders on Thursday that she had broken an agreement to hold a minute of silence, according to two people who were in the room, granted anonymity to speak freely. Aust told POLITICO: “We are optimistic that the murder of Quentin, which caused shock far beyond France’s borders, will be commemorated appropriately in the European Parliament. We will continue to advocate for this.” Metsola told Aust that she has been in touch with Deranque’s family, and that they had asked her not to politicize his death, according to the two people. The right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group, and the far-right Patriots and ESN groups first asked for a minute of silence to be held at an extraordinary plenary session on Feb. 27. Metsola said that plenary was dedicated exclusively to the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and agreed to move the minute of silence to the plenary of March 9-13, according to the right-wing groups. “She didn’t keep her word, but we won’t ask again,” said a Patriots official. Metsola’s office told POLITICO: “Anything the president will do will be done in collaboration with the family.” She gave a speech condemning political violence at the opening of the plenary on Monday. “This Parliament stands against political violence without exception, and I want to underline that any political differences must be settled in the arena of public debate, without ever resorting to aggressive behavior or violence, and I expect all of us elected to this house to be the best examples of that,” Metsola told MEPs.

Germany’s Friedrich Merz and Poland’s Donald Tusk are among a group of EU leaders urging Brussels to tighten visa rules for Russian nationals with combat experience in Ukraine. In a letter to European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, eight leaders warned that Moscow’s war on Ukraine is creating longer-term internal security risks for the EU’s Schengen free-movement area. They argue that demobilized or rotating combatants, including thousands recruited from prisons, could seek to travel to EU countries, potentially fueling organized crime, violent offences or hostile state activity. They say rising numbers of visas issued to Russian nationals add urgency to the issue. Russian nationals filed some 620,000 to 670,000 Schengen visa applications in 2025, according to travel-industry estimates, ranking among the top five nationalities seeking entry to the EU. Roughly four in five applicants received a visa. “Any entry may therefore have serious consequences for the security of a Member State or the entire Schengen area,” the letter states. The initiative, also backed by Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Sweden, calls on the Commission to prepare targeted visa restrictions and explore changes to EU rules enabling coordinated entry bans. EU countries have already tightened access in recent years, with most visas now issued for shorter stays and more limited validity.

BRUSSELS — Spain’s left-wing Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz hit out at the EU’s leadership for being weak on the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, amid rumbling discontent in Madrid over the conflict and Europe’s response. “Europe is an orphan at a moment of historic gravity,” Díaz said during an interview with POLITICO in Brussels. “The kind of leadership the bloc needs is lacking.” The EU, Díaz said, “should be fighting for a political Europe, an economic Europe, a social Europe, a fiscal Europe, a Europe that has its own foreign policy, that has its own policy of self-defense and is not held hostage by [U.S. President Donald] Trump.” And, Díaz added, Brussels should be pushing back hard against the “completely illegitimate” war in Iran, which the U.S. and Israel launched late last month, sparking turmoil in the Middle East as Tehran retaliated with missile and drone attacks across the region. Díaz took aim at European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for not immediately moving to condemn the attack on Iran, and said she should speak out swiftly in defense of the same international law principles that can be found in the Charter of the United Nations. “Europe must stand on the side of international law, human rights and democracy,” she said. “Given the times we’re living in, none of us can afford to remain silent.” Her remarks echoed those of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has assumed the role of Europe’s chief Trump critic and has repeatedly denounced Washington’s “unjustified and dangerous military intervention” in Iran. Díaz, who this week chided German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for paying “homage” to Trump, argued the EU’s stance toward the U.S. president could also have serious domestic consequences. “The fact is that European citizens are against the illegitimate war in Iran,” she said. “By supporting it, the EU could end up increasing the Euroskeptic sentiment that often also fuels the growth of the far right.” Díaz praised Spain’s refusal to back Washington’s military offensive and Madrid’s defense of “human rights, dignity and decency around the world.” She added that Spain’s stance was increasingly backed by other EU leaders, noting that even Italy’s right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, had said on Monday that the war represents “a breakdown of the rules of international law.” ‘NOT AFRAID’ Trump, in Diaz’s view, poses an existential threat to Europe that the EU is failing to recognize. “Trump has dictated a global state of emergency and broken all the rules,” Díaz said. | Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images “In December of last year Mr. Trump released a strategic document in which he took aim at Europe and explicitly said that he has had enough of us,” she said, in reference to the Trump administration’s blunt National Security Strategy. The text fleshes out an “America First” approach to Europe that is focused on gaining a mercantilist advantage over the continent. Díaz, who leads the far-left Sumar party, the junior partner in Sánchez’s coalition government, argued that the U.S. president’s outlandish public statements camouflaged a deep animosity toward the bloc grounded in economic objectives. “Everything he does has these crazy overtones, but deep down the actions are motivated by economic interests in the U.S.,” she argued. “Europe needs to wake up once and for all.” The top Spanish minister blasted EU leaders for taking a “servile” attitude toward the U.S. president, adding that the approach was “foolish, because it’s clear Mr. Trump does not respect those who attempt to be his vassals.” Díaz said her country “is not afraid” to stand up to the U.S. president and does not feel intimidated by his threat to cut commercial ties with Madrid. “Trump has dictated a global state of emergency and broken all the rules,” she said. “In these moments of uncertainty, of pain, of absolute uncertainty, we must be bold in our response.”

LONDON — Zack Polanski was once a Liberal Democrat. Now he’s eating his old party’s lunch.  Britain’s liberal centrists are scrambling to find their voice in Britain’s multi-party system as the self-described “eco-populist” Green Party leader grabs all the attention. The Liberal Democrats — the third-largest party in the U.K. House of Commons — failed to retain their £500 deposit in last month’s Gorton and Denton by-election in which the Greens convincingly took the Greater Manchester seat from the governing Labour Party.  They now face a big test in local elections in May. “There’s no question they’re being squeezed,” Tory peer and pollster Robert Hayward said of the Lib Dem position. They “may well be hit” in May as the Greens compete for the same “we don’t like you two parties” voice, he said.   It leaves long-serving leader Ed Davey facing questions about his strategy — and even his future as leader — as his party gathers in the northern English city of York for their spring conference this weekend.  ATTENTION ECONOMY  Lib Dem MPs should be having the time of their lives.  Their record-breaking 72 seats at the 2024 election saw their triumphant return as the third-largest party in the Commons after a near wipeout in 2015. The ruling Labour Party is deeply unpopular, and war in the Middle East has traditionally been election-winning territory for the centrists. In the aftermath of ex-Labour PM Tony Blair’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Liberal Democrats won parliamentary by-elections later that year and in 2004. Yet they are now jostling for attention with parties with far fewer parliamentary seats.  Reform UK is dominating conversation on the right of British politics — despite having just eight MPs — thanks to its poll lead, and eye-catching anti-immigration policies. The Liberal Democrats failed to retain their £500 deposit in last month’s Gorton and Denton by-election in which the Greens convincingly took the Greater Manchester seat from the governing Labour Party. | Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images The Greens, with just five MPs, have found a strong communicator in Polanski, who became their leader last September and has eclipsed Davey, long known for his ability to capture media attention. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t frustrating,” said one Lib Dem MP about their coverage. Like others quoted, this person was granted anonymity to speak candidly.  “Why would you cover the Liberal Democrats?” a senior party figure asked. “We aren’t polling well enough for people to take it seriously that we might be a party of government next time.”  A Liberal Democrat spokesman pointed to the party’s success in 2024 as well as last year in local council by-elections. “Ed is the most popular leader in British politics and has established himself as the anti-Trump voice in Parliament,” the spokesman said. “Ed is the only leader with a plan to fix our NHS and end the cost of living crisis. We will take on the populists and win.” CAN’T BEAT ‘EM? JOIN ‘EM Davey became a household name performing questionable stunts during the 2024 general election campaign, and he continues to vie for attention with headline-grabbing positions on topics dominating the news.  He is consistently critical of U.S. President Donald Trump — most recently calling for King Charles’ planned state visit to the U.S. to be canceled. He also condemned “tax exiles” in Dubai affected by Iranian strikes, confronting online critics with pithy rebuttals.  Davey became a household name performing questionable stunts during the 2024 general election campaign, and he continues to vie for attention with headline-grabbing positions on topics dominating the news. | Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images He spearheaded a Commons debate criticizing the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — though this backfired when opponents pointed out he had praised the former Prince Andrew when he was a minister in the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government early 2010s. Earlier this year his deputy Daisy Cooper called for theTreasury to be replaced with a Department for Growth.  The party is also hoping to capture attention by creating a press conference room in its Westminster HQ, POLITICO reported last month. “Not everybody is fully signed up to that strategy,” the senior party figure quoted above said.  There is a “general unrest about the ‘let’s grab any passing headline we can, regardless of how closely it aligns to our values or our broader messaging’” approach, that figure added. “It’s not all about how many podcasts you’re on, how many times you get photos on the front page of whatever newspaper tickles your fancy,” the Lib Dem MP quoted above said.  Earlier this year his deputy Daisy Cooper called for theTreasury to be replaced with a Department for Growth. | Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images Sean Kemp, a former Lib Dem head of media, cautioned: “The coverage is no good if it’s coverage that actually loses you voters.” RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB Davey will have been leader for six years in August, and now some in his party are privately questioning if he is the right person to lead them in the long run.  “If we don’t make the size of gains that we thought we were going to, then I think some of the unease that’s being expressed behind closed doors might well be” made public, the senior party figure said of the Lib Dem local election result.  “There are questions being asked about who’s the right person to take us forward,” they added. Roz Savage, an MP elected in 2024, told PoliticsHome in an interview earlier this month she couldn’t give her view “on the record” on the question of Davey’s leadership.  Even Davey’s supporters acknowledge things need to change. Roz Savage, an MP elected in 2024, told PoliticsHome in an interview earlier this month she couldn’t give her view “on the record” on the question of Davey’s leadership. | Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images The MP quoted above said the party “definitely shouldn’t be standing still,” and had “to keep constantly evolving and adapting.” STEALING THEIR CLOTHES Davey’s rivals have been studying the Lib Dem playbook. Former Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said her party had “learned a lot from watching Lib Dem by-election campaigns,” gaining “an understanding of what you need to do as a challenger party in terms of delivering your leaflets, the pattern of it.” Sam White, Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff in opposition, saw echoes of Lib Dem strategy in the Greens’ successful Gorton and Denton by-election campaign, where Polanski campaigned hard against Labour’s Middle East stance.  “This is how they do by-elections,” White said. “They happily face both ways. They offer the public a really low-cost way and low-risk way of giving a bloody nose to a governing party who’s quite unpopular,” he added.  STAYING THE COURSE  Others think the by-election trouncing is overblown, pointing to the party’s focus on Tory and Reform facing seats in the so-called “blue wall.” Former Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said her party had “learned a lot from watching Lib Dem by-election campaigns.” | Isabel Infantes/PA Images via Getty Images “[The Greens] are not going to be part of the debate and the discussion in nearly all the places where the Liberal Democrats are going to be competitive,” a second Lib Dem MP said. “People in individual seats are not daft” about which party posed the best challenge. It is only sensible for parties to target areas where they can win in Britain’s majoritarian first-past-the-post electoral system, they added. Party veteran Kemp cautions the Lib Dems not to move left in response to the Green surge, warning Davey won’t be able to “out Polanski Polanski.”  “There is no gain for them in sounding massively left-wing,” he warned, adding: “They need to not scare people off.”  He advocates “greater ideological consistency” —  something he thinks will be easier given the party’s narrower focus on Tory and Reform facing seats. “Sometimes there’s benefits in being a bit boring,” he said.