The issue of more than one million immigrants heading for Europe from Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia has only helped to strengthen the discontent against the EU within its member states. Escalation in migrant crisis has also led to confrontations and diplomatic disputes in the EU countries. Lately Hungary sent armoured vehicles to its border with Croatia, while Slovenian police sealed several crossings after Croatia attempted to offload tens of thousands of refugees prompting the UN to warn that the concept of European unity was at risk. Hungary and France too got involved in verbal spat as French President Francois Hollande asked Hungary to back mandatory migrant quotas or consider leaving the EU. Countries like Macedonia, Hungary, Poland, France, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, etc. have either been shutting their borders or have been imposing stricter border restrictions. Few days back Slovakia’s Prime Minister Roberto Fico threatened to leave the European Union over quotas to accept refugees. This particular crisis now threat the very spirit of free movement of people across the 28-nation bloc termed Schengen Zone.
A recent happening worth noting is the local elections that happened in France in which supporters of France’s far-right Front National led by Marine Le Pen narrowly lost. But despite the setback, the bigger story is the rising support for the French far-right which has been staunchly against the EU holding its policies responsible for decline in agriculture, fishing, deindustrialization, etc. Interestingly Le Pen has compared Brexit to the fall
‘Hellenic’ means relating to Greece. Off late Greece is the country where so called proverbial ‘hell has been breaking loose’. We have been hearing various news reports related to Greece and the acute economic crises that it is currently facing. For many of us in India, we haven’t looked at this situation as a major global event except for some of those from stock markets or from impex sector who
