These are extraordinary times in Europe, and that is why the German Von der Leyen began her speech by quoting the Englishman Charles Dickens: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". The writer from Portsmouth, who would now have to show his passport to travel to his beloved Paris, thus defined Europe in the time of sharpened guillotines in France. Von der Leyen updated Dickens's thought before the European Parliament in Strasbourg: "The European Union is stronger than ever, and the European Union may seem more precarious than ever". The paradox is the literary figure that works best in times of despair, of urgency.In the hemicycle, listening to the speech on the state of the Union by the German woman, there was an extraordinary presence, that of another non-EU citizen: Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England and of Canada, now treated as a guru in many European chancelleries thanks to a brilliant speech at the last Davos forum. That day, Carney said some things that community leaders had not dared to utter: he declared the old international order dead; he called on middle powers to unite and take a step forward to stop depending on the big ones; he hinted that it was necessary to stand up to Trump; and he left a monumental phrase: "If you are not at the table, you are on the menu".

Platforms like Instagram, Tiktok or Facebook will from now on have to guarantee that they are safe if they want to operate in the European Union. The European Commission presented this Thursday the European law for the protection of children on the internet, which bans access to social networks for those under 13 years of age and limits their use for minors, in order to protect them from the associated risks. To achieve this, it has announced that it will force companies to present "compliance plans" before the rule comes into force, if they do not want to be left out of the community market.

If this political analysis of the health of the European Union were music, it would have to sound increscendo (intensity) with a few touches of ostinato (tension) and quite a few moments of tremolo (suspense).

The European Commission has acknowledged that the housing crisis is a European priority and, as a first step to address it, announced last week the proposal for the affordable housing act, the European law on affordable housing, the details of which you can read in the chronicle by Núria Sala Ventura for this newspaper. It is not that there has been a move towards Bolivarianism in Brussels. But they have indeed become aware that the fact that a million Europeans have no home to live in, while 20% of the available housing stock within the European Union is empty, is an urgent situation. The purchase price of a home in community countries has risen, in the last ten years, by more than 60%, and rental prices, by 20%. In addition to being an urgent situation, it is an unsustainable, unjust... and illegal situation: the right to decent housing is a basic social right (in the Spanish state it is a constitutional right) that is often violated, or denied, by market impositions. This European housing law –promoted by former minister Teresa Ribera, now Vice President of the Commission, and by the Commissioner for Housing, Dan Jorgensen– aims precisely at what has been said so many times was not advisable (and according to some, not even possible), and which reality now shows is necessary: to intervene in the market, to set limits and caps to prevent it from falling into speculative inertia.That is why the law proposes measures such as legal limitations on the purchase of second homes or non-habitual residences in those regions classified as stressed areas. Also, imposing penalties on owners who keep apartments or houses empty, to force them onto the market. The new proposed law insists, mind you, on boosting the construction of new housing to ease the market (although it is true that it speaks of promoting operators different from the traditional ones, such as cooperatives or non-profit entities, instead of the usual large construction companies). More interesting in this sense are advances like the ZAN law (zero artificialisation nette), from France, which proposes not to build a single more square meter of rustic land and to work, instead, on the rehabilitation, reuse, and transformation of everything that has already been built.The European proposal aligns well with the ban on tourist apartments by the Barcelona City Council, or with the penalties for having vacant flats in force in Catalonia for four years. In the Balearic Islands, on the other hand, the spokesperson for the PP parliamentary group in the Parliament, Sebastià Sagreras, has declared that “he cannot fathom” that a Majorcan “cannot buy a second residence in another municipality.” Not many things fit inside the spokesperson's head (the PISA report leaves the Balearic Islands at the tail end of the Spanish state, which in turn is at the tail end of Europe in educational matters, and this is also noticeable in the government officials). What won't he say when he finds out that the majority of Majorcans cannot even think about buying a first home in any municipality.

All activities in life are subject to norms or rules. It is one of the characteristics of civilized societies. It is evident that advances, as happened back in the day with the internet, begin by breaking some ways of doing or working, but over time they become normalized, although there are always those who find a way to go down the path of illegality or know how to take advantage of the lack of rules. We must be careful to reduce this aspect as much as possible.

In 2012, when Europe was fully immersed in the debt crisis, a group of economists, academics, and lawyers opposed to bank bailouts launched the platform Wahlalternative 2013, which the following year led to the founding of Alternative for Germany (AfD). What had begun as a movement critical of the monetary union quickly changed course. The 2015 refugee crisis accelerated its drift toward the radical right and shifted its discourse toward immigration, nationalism, and the rejection of the European liberal order.

The historic victory of Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the state of Saxony-Anhalt is a political earthquake for a country trapped in existential angst. German exceptionalism is more earthly than ever. The country's economy has had six consecutive years of meager growth. The traditionally powerful industry is frightened and is demanding more protection against China and United States tariffs. The shocks of energy prices and the announced crisis in the automotive sector –now aggravated by the announcement of mass layoffs at Volkswagen– fuel a feeling of an end of an era that makes the European Union tremble.

"Europeans are facing a harsh truth: that this is the new normal." This sentence from the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, brings to mind that "new normal" of restrictions on individual freedom in favor of public health to which we had to adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic. The statement, however, is not from six years ago, but from this week. Now, the new normal to which we must get used to is that of systematic attacks by Russia. "We are in a new era of European security," insisted the leader of the EU executive. The message arrived after German authorities directly blamed Moscow for an attack with an explosives-laden drone at Leipzig airport at the beginning of August, one of the most serious sabotage attempts recorded so far on European territory, at a key NATO logistics center.

Judge Manuel Marchena used the concept of environmental violence for the first time against four of the protesters who surrounded Parliament in 2011 to try to obstruct the passage of deputies when the budgets consolidating the cuts were to be approved. None of them committed a violent act, but they were sentenced to three years in prison for the mere fact of attending a demonstration in which crimes could have been committed. Once the foundations were laid, Marchena himself used "environmental violence" to justify the sentence against the leaders of the Procés.

The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, have met with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Kyiv. Illa conveyed to him his "commitment" and "solidarity" on behalf of Catalonia, and "showed his support" in the war against the Russian invasion, Ukraine's potential future accession to the European Union, and the potential use of frozen Russian assets located within EU territory for the reconstruction of his country. "It has been a very fruitful meeting in which we were able to express not only the desire to cooperate, but also the desire to learn from a country that has shown a resilience that I believe must be highly valued," the Catalan leader remarked.

The European Union repeats like a mantra that Morocco is a reliable partner and, despite growing suspicions about Rabat's involvement in the migration crisis in Ceuta, it has treaded carefully when it comes to making any kind of statement that could anger the Moroccan regime. Community sources avoid reacting to the possible link between the Mohamed VI regime and the massive entry of immigrants into the autonomous city and limit themselves to responding that it is "an internal affair" that must be clarified by the Spanish authorities.

The drone attack at the beginning of August on the German airport of Leipzig has put the European Union and NATO on alert, who view with concern how incursions with military aircraft into European territory are becoming increasingly frequent. The day after German authorities held Russian intelligence services responsible for the Leipzig incident, this Wednesday the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance, Mark Rutte, met urgently in Brussels, and they have pledged to increase pressure on Moscow.

Although many Eastern European countries had already accused Russia of practicing what is called "hybrid warfare" against them, it is now Germany that has directly accused Moscow of being behind the incident in early August at Leipzig airport, when a drone loaded with explosives impacted a Ukrainian plane without exploding. A month later, the investigation by German authorities reaches this conclusion after analyzing the drone's operation and characteristics. In August, the German Defense Minister, Alexander Dobrindt, was already very clear when he stated: "We are the daily target of hybrid warfare".

Iceland was the coveted accession for Brussels. A quick and easy negotiation (despite the fisheries chapter), a new net contributor to the community coffers, and a strengthening of the Nordic dimension of the European Union at a time of strategic reconfiguration of the Arctic. But it will not be. Icelanders have rejected, by a narrow margin, the Icelandic government's request to restart accession negotiations with the EU, frozen since 2013. The result: 52.8% voted against and 47.2% in favor, with voters in the capital in favor of integrating into the Union and those in rural areas against. Icelanders have preferred to remain committed neighbors aligned with Europe, but without full accession. A resounding and painful message for an EU obsessed with the immediate future of enlargement.

A new era is beginning regarding packaging and its waste. As of this Wednesday, European Union member states must apply the new packaging and packaging waste regulation, in effect since last year. The text regulates the sustainability and labeling of packaging throughout its life cycle and introduces restrictions on the production, use, and waste management with a view to 2050. However, some of the measures will not be enforceable until 2028, 2030, or even later.

A few pallets serve as a stage; there is a microphone stand in the center. The speaker is Aleksandr Lukashenko, addressing thousands of migrants stranded at the border between Belarus and Poland: "If you want to go west, we will not stop you, we will not strangle you, nor will we beat you." They applaud him. "It is up to you. Go ahead. Go there," insists the Belarusian president. The scene is not new; it is almost five years old, but it continues to be highlighted as one of the most obvious cases of the instrumentalization of migration as part of the so-called hybrid war against the European Union. The use of migrants as a weapon to achieve political objectives has intensified in Europe following Russia's war against Ukraine and also due to the growth of anti-immigration discourse, which makes this strategy increasingly attractive to actors seeking to exert pressure.

Within Homer's Odyssey, one of the most beautiful characters – allow me to put it that way— is Eumaeus, or Eumeos, depending on the different versions (it is fascinating work, which obviously does not belong here, the comparative reading between the magnificent Catalan translations of the Homeric poem: that of Carles Riba, that of Joan Francesc Mira, and the recent one by Pau Sabaté, which do not confront each other, but rather add to and complement each other). Eumaeus is the swineherd of Ulysses or Odysseus, to whom he has remained loyal during his twenty-year absence. Along with Penelope and Telemachus, Eumaeus is the only one who still believes that Ulysses will one day return to Ithaca. He is the first to recognize him, but first he welcomes him into his home, convinced that he is a poor old man wandering without a home, without direction, and without identity. Eumaeus barely asks him questions; he sees someone in need and shares what he has with him: shelter, food, and a place to spend the night under cover. It seems little, but it is a lot: it is human dignity. In one of the most memorable passages of the Odyssey, Eumaeus converses with his guest and informs him of the misfortune of Ithaca and the difficult situation in which Penelope finds herself, cornered by a multitude of greedy, cunning, and parasitic suitors. He also tells him his own story: Eumaeus himself was of royal blood, son of Ctesius, king of the island of Syros. However, a slave girl handed Eumaeus over, when he was still an infant, to some pirates, who sold him as a slave to Laertes, Ulysses' father. Since then he has been the palace swineherd (the "divine swineherd," in one of the Homeric epithets associated with him), and his lofty origin serves as a reflection of Ulysses' own destiny, who left for the Trojan War as a king and warrior and returns to Ithaca, twenty years later, as an old beggar, dispossessed and uprooted, whom everyone presumes dead. Everyone except those who still love him. Eumaeus's intervention is one of the most delicate parts of the Odyssey. If you want to see a good film adaptation (without judging Christopher Nolan's, which I haven't seen yet), the 2024 film The return, directed by Uberto Pasolini and starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, and Claudio Santamaria as Ulysses, Penelope, and Eumaeus, respectively, is well worth it.

Europol has once again put Catalan independence under the spotlight. In its annual report on the state and trends of terrorism in the European Union, the police body has reincorporated the sovereignist movement into the "Ethno-nationalist and separatist terrorism and violent extremism" section. This inclusion comes just one year after, at the beginning of 2025, Europol would have excluded it from this same list thanks to the political pressure from Esquerra and Junts.

While the interior ministers of the European Union are meeting telematically to discuss the tightening of border controls, this news appears, which you can read in Ara Balears: seventeen people have died trying to reach Mallorca in a makeshift boat, after two weeks adrift. Salvamento Marítimo found two people inside the boat, malnourished and dehydrated, who before being admitted to Son Espases hospital were able to report that there were nineteen people on board. All the others had died. These seventeen deaths are added to the more than five hundred so far this year on the migratory route that attempts to reach the Balearic Islands from Algeria. It is one of the main entry routes for immigrants into the Western Mediterranean, and also one of the most dangerous.When we talk about migration, we are talking about this, about poor people dying drowned at sea, or of thirst and hunger. Whether mafias are the ones who brought them there, or governments that encourage their own citizens to go to their deaths, as we have seen these days, does not exempt First World countries from the political and moral duty to help these people, to welcome them, and to have foreseen all the mechanisms that civilization, democracy, and wealth allow in the service of an objective superior to any other: to recognize, restore, and protect their dignity as people. Before the mafias and depraved governments, the force that pushes these people is desperation, pure and simple. They assume the risks, the scams, and the humiliations because they know that here, in Europe, a relatively few kilometers from their villages devastated by corruption, living conditions are better. And they are: objectively, we are better off here. Let's prove it: let's develop migratory policies based on the civilizing and inalienable principle of human dignity. It is from this principle that the institutions of the post-World War II world order were built, starting with the United Nations and the European Union. It is these institutions and the world order that the great authoritarian powers – the USA and Russia – now want to dismantle, with the help of smaller but equally criminal governments like Israel or Morocco. That the European Union approved less than two months ago a pact on migration that includes the imprisonment of immigrants in prisons (they call them "centers") in non-EU countries is worse than a shame: it is a defeat. It is the European Union proclaiming to the world that it is incapable of being itself. That it is preparing for dismantling. Returning to the Balearic route, the local government of PP and Vox says it is "overwhelmed" by the eleven thousand people who have arrived in dinghies from January 2025 to July 2026. They are not, however, overwhelmed by the twenty million tourists who are destroying the islands during this tourist season. No, saying this is not do-goodism, nor wokism nor demagoguery: demagoguery is using migration crises to try to scrape votes by stoking discourses of hatred and racism.

The first response —and therefore the most sincere— from the European Union to the crisis in Ceuta orchestrated by Morocco has been what community policy can least afford: once again, division, a lack of unity. Pedro Sánchez, who from the outset has asked European partners for "solidarity and empathy", has found himself practically alone, singled out, questioned, threatened in the face of an external destabilization attempt. It took Ursula von der Leyen five days to publicly support Madrid. It is the minimum required by her office. Tuesday's emergency meeting in Brussels could serve to minimize the damage or make it deeper.