It was the year of the messy breakup.
In 2017, Theresa May pulled the trigger to formally begin Britain’s exit from the EU, Catalans voted in an illegal referendum to split from Spain, and Martin Schulz pledged not to enter into another “Grand Coalition” with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives (though that one didn’t stick).
We revisit the news events that shook Europe and the world in 2017 in a look back at POLITICO’s most-read stories of the year.
20. Dutch election live blog
Pool photo by Remko de Waal/AFP via Getty Images
It seems the only thing POLITICO readers love more than a general election is an election live blog. The first of its kind to enter our top 20 covered March’s Dutch election, in which the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) of Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Geert Wilders’ far-right Party for Freedom went head-to-head. In the end, Wilders failed to complete a populist hat-trick after Brexit and Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. But while Rutte’s VVD came first in the election, the Netherlands’ parliament was so fragmented that negotiators took 225 days to form a government — the longest ever Dutch coalition talks.
19. What Spain has to lose from Catalan independence
POLITICO photo-illustration (Source images by Getty Images)
It’s hard to believe that this September story was written before Catalans voted in favor of splitting from Spain; Madrid took control of the region and fired its government; ousted President Carles Puigdemont took flight to Brussels as eight former members of his government were jailed facing charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds; and Catalan secessionists were victorious again in an election called by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to restore order to the region, with separatist parties retaining their absolute majority in the regional parliament. In the weeks before all that, POLITICO did the math and found Spain had a lot to lose if secessionists succeeded — while Catalonia makes up only 6 percent of Spain’s territory and 16 percent of its population, it accounts for a fifth of its economic output, a quarter of exports, over half of new startup investment in 2016, and nearly a third of Spain’s Rio Olympic medalists.
18. Brussels fears Britain’s ‘Brexit chaos’ part of a cunning plan
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Viewed from Brussels, the U.K. seemed so ill-prepared in the early rounds of Brexit negotiations that some EU countries began to wonder whether it was all a trap, designed to lull them into a false sense of security. Those fears now seem to have been unfounded.
17. 7 ‘tremendous’ Trump moments in Brussels
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Brussels got its first taste of Donald Trump in May when the American president spent a day in the Belgian capital for a diplomatic visit to the city he once dubbed a “hellhole.” POLITICO put together a list of seven of Trump’s best Brussels moments, from that macho-man handshake with French President Emmanuel Macron to his iconic shove past Montenegrin PM Duško Marković to get to the front of a photo op.
16. Britain’s Brexit denial
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It was the story that sparked the fury of Downing Street and British tabloids alike. POLITICO reported on an April dinner between Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in which the two leaders reportedly clashed over Brexit negotiations, and after which an EU diplomat described the Brits as being “in a different galaxy” in terms of their expectations of the talks. A brutal account of the dinner date then appeared in German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. British officials blamed Juncker’s chief of staff Martin Selmayr — one of only six people at the dinner — for the hostile briefing.
15. Trump confirms Europe’s worst fears
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POLITICO reported from the sidelines of the GLOBSEC Global Security Forum in Bratislava, where Europe’s leaders were coming to terms with the fact their worst fears about Donald Trump were being realized. Trump’s speech at NATO’s new Brussels headquarters earlier in the month, in which he again berated U.S. allies for not spending enough on defense and suggested they “owe massive amounts” in back payments, confirmed the president wasn’t just putting on an act during his election campaign that would give way to a more diplomatic approach once he took office.
14. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Macron heckle Trump in video selfie
Geoffroy Van der Hasselt/AFP via Getty Images
Europe’s golden wunderkind plus The Governator equals video selfie magic. Back in June on a visit to the Elysée Palace in Paris, Arnold Schwarzenegger shot a video with French President Emmanuel Macron, in which the pair took aim at Donald Trump for his stance on environmental issues. “One man cannot destroy our progress,” the “Terminator” star said. “One man can’t stop our clean energy revolution. And one man can’t go back in time — only I can do that.” Macron chimed in: “We will deliver together to make the planet great again.”
13. 5 takeaways from Emmanuel Macron’s win in France
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Emmanuel Macron, then not yet 40, won the French presidential election in May, beating his far-right rival Marine Le Pen by a wider-than-expected margin. That had us asking (and answering) what the centrist’s victory in the presidential vote meant for France, Europe and the world.
12. POLITICO 28 class of 2018
Illustrations by Jaya Nicely for POLITICO, “28″ logo by Post Typography
For the third year, POLITICO identified the 28 people shaping, shaking and stirring Europe, from German Liberal Christian Lindner — who walked out of coalition talks with Angela Merkel — to the U.K.’s perennial Brexiteer Michael Gove, a clever strategist who made a strong comeback in 2017 following a spectacularly unsuccessful bid to lead his party after the EU referendum the previous year.
11. 12 things Brexit has already ruined
Illustration by Calum Heath for POLITICO
A year after Britain voted to leave the European Union, POLITICO, with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek, looked at 12 things Brexit has already ruined, from the big — such as the “United” Kingdom and Britain’s reputation — to the not-so-big — like meeting “the one” and the space-time continuum.
10. Monsanto attempts takedown of agency linking its weedkiller to cancer
Mehdi Fedouach/AFP via Getty Images
POLITICO analyzed hundreds of previously undisclosed documents from a high-profile court case in San Francisco and conducted interviews with numerous scientific experts to tell the tale of the intense battle raging between scientists and American agrichemical giant Monsanto over the safety of its blockbuster weedkiller glyphosate.
9. 12 people who will (likely) ruin 2017
POLITICO photo-illustration (Source images by Getty Images and EPA)
Cast your mind back to the very beginning of the year. After a 2016 that rated as one of the Continent’s most unpleasant years since the Balkan war, POLITICO predicted 2017 wouldn’t be much better. In that spirit, we brought you a dozen characters — from British tabloid editors to Carles Puigdemont to the leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party Jarosław Kaczyński — who would likely make you want to stay in bed.
8. How Theresa May blew it
Illustration by Jules Julien for POLITICO
How did the British prime minister go from a commanding lead in the polls, with a divided and seemingly weak opposition, public support for her hallmark policy of exiting the EU and one of the most experienced campaign teams ever assembled in Britain, to clinging to power propped up by MPs from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party? In a must-read for anyone interested in British politics, POLITICO interviewed more than a dozen people who worked on both the Conservative and Labour campaigns to come to the conclusion that a reluctance to delegate, hubris and campaigning ineptitude led to the shock result.
7. What Angela Merkel meant at the Munich beer hall
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Comments by the German chancellor on a campaign stop in a Bavarian beer tent in May sent the Twittersphere into a frenzy. Merkel, mentioning both the U.S. and Brexit, told her audience it was time for Europe to “take our fate into our own hands.” She said: “The era in which we could fully rely on others is over to some extent,” adding, “That’s what I experienced over the past several days.” POLITICO broke down what she meant.
6. The EU exodus: When doctors and nurses follow the money
Tim Ball and Ginger Hervey/POLITICO
A POLITICO analysis of European Commission data found an exodus of health care professionals from Eastern and Southern Europe to Western Europe — in effect, poorer countries are training doctors for their richer neighbors. In a series of graphics, we charted this health care divide.
5. UK election exit poll: Theresa May loses majority
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As British polling stations closed on that fateful June election day, an exit poll predicted what had until that moment seemed unthinkable: Theresa May looked to have fallen a dozen seats short of an overall majority, and Britain was heading for a hung parliament.
4. David Cameron to Trump: Your ‘fake news’ act is ‘dangerous’
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Former British Prime Minister David Cameron used a December speech in London to attack Donald Trump. Cameron addressed the U.S. president directly, warning his use of the phrase “fake news” against credible media outlets had allowed Russian interference to thrive. “President Trump, fake news is not broadcasters criticizing you,” Cameron said. “It’s Russian bots and trolls targeting your democracy, pumping out untrue stories day after day, night after night. When you misappropriate the term fake news, you are deflecting attention from real abuses.”
3. EU agencies leaving London after Brexit: live blog
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As EU countries decided where the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority would move after Brexit, POLITICO delved behind the closed-door meetings in Brussels to report on the multiple rounds of voting and the big promises made by national governments bidding for votes. We’re excited just rehashing it.
2. French election: live blog and results
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The first round of France’s presidential election on April 23 captured Europe’s attention. Four candidates were in with a chance of making the top two, which would have given them a place in the decisive second round on May 7. In the end, the victors were Emmanuel Macron, barely a year after forming his own political movement, and far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
1. Merkel’s Ivanka moment
Clemens Bilan/EPA
It was the look that launched a thousand memes and topped POLITICO’s most-read list for 2017. During a visit to the White House in May, Angela Merkel, seated next to Ivanka Trump as she praised her father’s commitment to job creation, tilted her head in the first daughter’s direction, a look of bewilderment tinged with disdain enveloping her face.