Patrick Costello

Nov 18, 2024 | chartist.org.uk | Patrick Costello

The clear win by Austria’s far right FPÖ in national elections on 30 September was further confirmation of far right normalisation across Europe. As in the Netherlands earlier this year, the “win” was nowhere near a majority (29%) but Austria’s conservatives have shown no inclination to shut the far right out of power in this election or in previous ones. The most likely outcome is a coalition driven by the FPÖ, whoever becomes the new chancellor.

May 29, 2024 | chartist.org.uk | Patrick Costello

Portugal’s 10 March elections dealt a heavy blow to the hopes of the European left. It wasn’t just that the Socialists and their allies lost so heavily, after an unprecedentedly successful eight years in power. These elections also marked an ominous breakthrough of the far right Chega party which jumped from one seat in 2019 to 50 out of 230, the third biggest party. For the pro-European left, Portugal’s last decade of government had been a model.

Apr 2, 2024 | chartist.org.uk | Patrick Costello

The surprising result for Geert Wilders’ PVV in the Dutch national elections at the end of last year prompted a flurry of alarm in the UK press on the growing threat of the far right in Europe. These concerns have been heightened by polling earlier this year suggesting that the AfD in Germany is the second biggest party at 22% and that Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) is consistently in first place with up to a third of the French electorate’s support.

Mar 13, 2024 | ionanalytics.com | Patrick Costello |Anjali Piramal |Santosh Shetty |Lloyd Vassell

Technology companies with research and development (R&D) prowess remain an abundant source of mandates in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH), with US investors driving much of the subsequent deal activity. This gives advisors who can offer clients access to a US investor base a leg up on the competition when looking to land sellside mandates in the tech space, said Andreas Kinsky, partner at Pava in Munich.

Jan 19, 2024 | chartist.org.uk | Patrick Costello

While readers of the British press may be given a different impression, the eruption of violence in Israel and Palestine has not only been a source of division and controversy in the Labour Party:  EU policymakers have also struggled to maintain a united front. Historically, Europe has played an important role in the international efforts to broker peace in the Middle East.