Good morning. As Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico recovers from an assassination attempt, other EU leaders are questioning whether divisive politics was to blame — and how to tone down the hate, as I write below. And our energy correspondent reports on Belgium’s effort to decarbonise a critical element of global infrastructure: concrete.
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Red line
The first assassination attempt against an EU leader since 2002 has prompted a sober reflection around the bloc’s capitals: has our politics got too hateful?
Context: Slovak leader Robert Fico was shot on Wednesday at a meeting with the public. He remains in hospital but allies said yesterday that he was no longer in a life-threatening situation. The alleged shooter has been charged with attempted murder.
Just three weeks before the continent goes to the polls to elect a new European parliament, and with the far right on the rise because of deep divisions over issues such as migration and social issues, the attack struck a nerve with other leaders across Europe.
Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander de Croo told the Financial Times that the news of the attack made his “heart stop beating for a few seconds”.
“Whatever the difference of opinion is, this is not how we do [politics] in Europe,” he added.
Slovakia’s political discourse has become increasingly poisoned in recent years as the country split along pro- and anti-Fico lines. The premier’s move to dismantle the country’s anti-corruption watchdog exacerbated that cleavage, prompting regular mass protests.
But many officials saw parallels across the EU.
“All over Europe, we can see increased polarisation and hate,” said Věra Jourová, vice-president of the European Commission. “As politicians, we have to take responsibility for the temperature of public debate . . . take a step back from aggressive language and show self-restraint when talking about political opponents.”
“One of the greatest achievements of democracies is to have replaced weapons with words, violence with debate,” European Council president Charles Michel wrote in a letter to Slovakia’s president.
“But this progress can never be taken for granted. Today the hardening of public discourse is a new danger that is putting our democracies to the test.”
Chart du jour: Screentime
Young people are increasingly unlikely to watch live sports events, and will instead consume just clips or follow athletes on social media, according to research that is recalibrating the media industry.
Concrete choices
Belgium is eager to show that you can have a green transition and promote economic growth for industry, too.
One concrete area of concern: cement, writes Alice Hancock.
Context: Decarbonising cement is a global imperative. Demand for the material is only growing, but even though the industry has made vast decarbonisation efforts in the past decade, it still produces the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as the whole of the EU.
Yesterday, in a light drizzle, Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra laid the foundation for a €500mn net zero cement plant outside the city of Mons.
It’s part of Belgium’s efforts to push an Industrial Deal alongside the EU’s flagship Green Deal policies, as businesses and politicians are starting to balk at the costs of reaching the EU’s targets to limit climate change.
The plant, owned by the Swiss cement giant Holcim and part-funded with a €230mn grant from the EU, should produce 2mn tonnes of cement per year by 2029 without emitting greenhouse gases.
It will use a mixture of decarbonised materials, carbon capture and Europe’s largest floating solar panel installation. Waste heat from the cement-making process (which requires temperatures of 1,450C) will be reused for the kiln.
“What we are achieving here or trying to achieve is exactly that difficult combination of climate action, innovation and just transition,” Hoekstra said. “Because if this plant is not built, that means basically the neighbourhood is also out of business because the old plant at some point will cease to exist.”
What to watch today
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to visit Spain.
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz receives Moldovan President Maia Sandu in Berlin.
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