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2024 began with conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East that are sending shockwaves around the world. It continues with a scramble for innovation in energy and tech that’s got the superpowers beefing up protection for homegrown industry and along the way, a series of elections that often pit populists against the guardians of globalised trade.
Enter France’s term-limited president. We hear what Emmanuel Macron had to say at his first visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos in six years. Caught between the investors they need to court and the superpowers China and the US that seem locked in a tariff and subsidy race, do citizens want an EU that’s open for business, or manning its borders?
A reminder of the challenge ahead of June’s European Elections came on Monday, when tractors rolled into Berlin. Farmers and truckers are both angry at the scrapping of a subsidy on diesel that they say punishes the working classes. With global warming, the green transition has become a question of national security all around. But does it have to increase inequality and force a backlash that favours the far right?
Whether it’s the green transition or the defence industry, it’s all down to the role of the state. The disruption of supply chains in Europe during Covid-19 and Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine have forced a rethink on when profits come second to security. So what does 2024 look like?
Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laurain and Imen Mellaz.
