The rise of the far-right in Europe
Parliamentary elections this year confirmed the rise of right-wing nationalist or radical parties in countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands and Italy. At the end of October, in Austria, the Parliament elected a far-right politician as its leader for the first time, after the historic victory of the Freedom Party in the September parliamentary election. In France, a republican front formed ahead of the early parliamentary election in summer managed to block the ruse to power of the nationalist National Assembly party (Rassemblement National), but the absence of a clear majority has since triggered a political crisis. In September, the anti-migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a regional election for the first time and obtained historically high scores in two others. Against this background, MEPs approved, on November 27, a new European Commission. The European Commission started its activity on December 1, and President Ursula von der Leyen, having secured a second term in office, promised major projects in the first 100 days.
Donald Trump returns to the White House
Republican Donald Trump won the United States presidential election on November 5, securing a second term at the White House, owing to a spectacular political comeback. In 2016, he had achieved a surprising victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, the favorite in the polls at the time. This year, he defeated Kamala Harris, who was endorsed by the Democratic Party in July after the withdrawal of the 80-year-old incumbent president Joe Biden from the race. Despite polls predicting a very close fight between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the Republican won the seven most contested states. At 78 years old, Donald Trump, whose election campaign was marked by two assassination attempts, four indictments and a criminal conviction, will be inaugurated on January 20, 2025.
Elections and repression in Russia, war in Ukraine
In Russia, Vladimir Putin began his 5th term as president in June, after winning an election denounced by the West as a sham. Earlier, in February, his famous opponent, Alexei Navalny, aged 47, had died suddenly, under suspicious circumstances, in a prison in the Arctic Circle, where he was serving a sentence for alleged extremist actions. Meanwhile, Ukraine, invaded by Russia in February 2022, launched a surprise attack against the Kursk border region in Russia in summer. In November, Kyiv for the first time used American and British long-range missiles against targets on Russian territory, after Washington and London gave their consent. Moscow retaliated by striking Ukraine with a state-of-the-art, non-nuclear, medium-range ballistic missile and vowed to increase such attacks if Ukraine continued to target Russia with Western missiles. Vladimir Putin even mentioned the possibility of resorting to nuclear weapons.
The war in the Middle East
Israel continued its military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, following the Palestinian Islamist group’s unprecedented attack on Israeli territory in October 2023. This year, several important Hamas leaders were killed, most notably the movement’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in July in Tehran. Negotiations for a ceasefire produced no results, and the Palestinian territory, where over 44,000 people, mostly civilians, have died, continued to struggle with a serious humanitarian crisis. At the same time, after about a year of cross-border clashes with the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas’ Iran-backed ally, in September, the Israeli army launched bombings against the Islamist movement in southern, eastern and northern Lebanon, as well as in the capital Beirut. Israel also undertook a ground offensive against Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon. In response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in September, and of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh earlier, Iran also launched hundreds of missiles on Israel, which responded with strikes on Iranian military bases, raising fears of a wider regional conflict. Also in the Middle East, towards the end of the year, a rebel offensive led by radical Islamists forced Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad, to flee the country, putting an end to the five-decade Baath Party regime.
Extreme weather conditions
Heatwaves and droughts, on the one hand, and catastrophic rains, on the other, have also wrought havoc around the world this year. A world atlas published by the UN shows that record-breaking drought episodes are about to become a habit. Meanwhile, floods have devastated many regions of the world. In Europe, southeastern Spain faced historic floods in the fall. According to the authorities, 230 people lost their lives, of whom 222 in the Valencia area alone. The desperate victims criticized the chaotic way in which the authorities managed the crisis, from the late alerting of people to the delayed delivery of aid.
The Paris Olympics
2024 was also the year when the 33rd edition of the Summer Olympic Games was held, the largest multi-sport event organized every four years. The competition took place in Paris, after an opening ceremony on the Seine River that was as lavish as it was controversial. After hosting the 1900 and 1924 Olympics, the French capital became the second city, after London, to play host to the Olympics three times. Also in Paris, on December 7, world leaders, but also ordinary people, attended the reopening ceremony of the famous Notre-Dame Cathedral, restored after a fire that had destroyed the Gothic monument five years earlier.
The world has lost…
We cannot end this roundup of the most important global events of 2024 without honoring the memory of personalities who passed away. Thus, in 2024, we said goodbye to international actors Alain Delon, Anouk Aimée, Donald Sutherland or Maggie Smith, to writer Ismail Kadare, to singer Françoise Hardy or to musician, composer and producer Quincy Jones. (VP)
