The European Union could be in major trouble as its two most important members enter simultaneous political crises.
Leaders in both France and Germany face an uncertain future as conservative opposition parties threaten to bring down their governments.
Emmanuel Macron’s minority government is on the brink of collapse as Marine Le Pen threatens a no-confidence vote over a controversial budget.
This comes after Mr Macron’s party was humiliated in parliamentary elections earlier this year, in which the leftist alliance became the largest party.
Mr Macron now faces the prospect of having to form another government or resigning.
The situation in Berlin is just as chaotic. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has just sacked his finance minister and looks in real trouble heading into February’s snap election.
It is expected that the Christian Democratic Union party, led by Friedrich Merz, will triumph.
The instability in Paris and Berlin comes at the worst possible time for the EU as Donald Trump prepares to take the White House once again in January.
Europe is bracing for potentially huge ramifications after Mr Trump threatened a blanket tariff of up to 20% on all non-Chinese US imports.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a concerning verdict on the European economy last month, warning that it is falling further behind the US’.
The IMF said the gap between the two economies will widen by the end of the decade.
An aging workforce and low productivity growth are key factors behind this, they said.
Alfred Kammer, director of the IMF’s Europe department, told the Financial Times: “Over the next two and a half decades, we had a widening gap…It’s a large gap [which] didn’t exist before, but exists now.”
The war in Ukraine could also test relations between Washington and Brussels as Mr Trump vows to secure a peace deal quickly.
