Macron and Scholz have suffered humiliating defeats triggering concern of a bigger shift to the right in France and Germany. If this happens, Europe's power balance could fundamentally transform.
For decades the far right sat on the periphery of Western politics, dismissed as angry skinheads or deluded neo-Nazis by the centrist mainstream. No longer.
A big pro-EU bloc should still hold sway even if the ultra-nationalists make gains. More broadly, the results will act as a barometer of public mood in the first vote since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Twin fears of an inward-looking Donald Trump and a westward-looking Vladimir Putin have left officials in Europe's treasuries urgently revising their budgets to make room for more defence spending.
It is curious that amid the global attention on the Gaza war, very few commentators have remarked on the way that European imperialism laid the foundations for the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The political goal was a US and European effort to demonstrate the capacity for connectivity idea generation, or less generously, to try and out-China the Chinese Belt Road Initiative.
A simple snapshot of a small grocery shop in Amsterdam reveals the power of human geography and how it can shape society. Without embracing diversity, European cities cannot re-invent themselves.
The sense that the US may be less committed to its allies' security is prompting a rethink of long-held assumptions, much to the delight of China and Russia
Supporting Israel used to help politicians get elected, but with Americans far more critical of Tel Aviv's influence on US policy, it has now become a liability at the ballot box
It is not just a fancy name for the air-conditioning industry, but an intricate system that begins with power stations and extends to the design of buildings and cities
The Palestinian-German author speaks to Al Majalla about the challenges facing Palestinian voices in Germany and how she engages German readers from within their own cultural and political context