The Year in Review
Some of the highlights of the year on the international political scene in 2026.
Bogdan Matei, 27.12.2025, 14:00
Donald Trump returns to the White House
The return to the White House of the Republican billionaire Donald Trump shook the entire world. With his unpredictability and the divisive way in which he approaches country and world affairs, Trump again generated either unconditional admiration or irrepressible disgust. Recently, for example, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to withdraw the National Guard troops deployed despite an opinion to the contrary from the local Democratic authorities in Los Angeles, the US’s second most populous city, in response to protests against the raids carried out by the immigration police. Internationally, Trump has caused tremors on all markets when he decided to raise import tariffs, being convinced that this move would reinvigorate domestic economy and create new jobs for Americans. Some commentators are convinced he is aspiring to the Nobel Peace Prize. His own team says he deserves it, not least for mediating, successfully, between sworn enemies: Armenia and Azerbaijan, India and Pakistan, Cambodia and Thailand. In Europe, Trump is not much liked, neither in Brussels, nor in the capitals of other states on the continent. The new security strategy published by the White House lists what the latter views as the insurmountable problems in Europe: economic decline, an excess of regulation from Brussels, stifling the identity and sovereignty of national states, which, together with illegal migration risks erasing European civilisation, as well as censorship of the freedom of speech, suppressing political opposition and unrealistic expectations with respect to Ukraine from European leaders who support Kyiv. US strategists claim that if current trends continue, Europe will be unrecognisable in 20 years or less.
The situation in Ukraine
We will support Ukraine until victory – remained in 2025 the position of many top politicians in Europe who have constantly supported Ukraine following its invasion by Russia four years ago. The Russian troops are advancing slowly, but constantly. About one fifth of Ukraine’s internationally recognised territory is under occupation, while the Russian army continues to bomb and kill indiscriminately, children, women and old people alike. Towards the end of the year Andriy Yermak resigned as the president’s Chief of Staff following the biggest corruption scandal during the term of Volodymyr Zelensky. In the view of a Romanian-Ukrainian, the incident marks a fissure in a power model built during the war years: a centralised system, dependent on personal loyalties and a small core formed around the president, of which Yermak had become an indispensable figure. It remains to be seen, the commentator adds, whether this is a real restructuring or just a symbolic move meant to dispel public anger and delay more difficult questions about the mechanics of power in Kyiv in times of war.
A fragile peace in the Middle East
The Gaza Strip is experiencing relative calm following a ceasefire. The unprecedented terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 carried out by the Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli territory resulted in over 1,200 deaths. The response of the Israeli army led to the death of almost 70,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to data provided by the Hamas-controlled administration in Gaza and considered credible by the United Nations. Journalists with sources in Gaza say 30,000 bodies are still under the piles of rubble caused by Israeli strikes.
Arrest warrants for two top officials
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, and Russian President Vladimir Putin for similar atrocities in Ukraine. Both are currently in office and managing the current affairs of their countries. Netanyahu is 76 years old, Putin is 73.
Unstable governments
Almost two-thirds of French citizens surveyed in a poll said they wanted President Emmanuel Macron to resign. 56% of those polled also want Parliament to dissolve and for early legislative elections to be held. In just three years, the country has had no fewer than five different cabinets. And in Romania’s neighbour Bulgaria, the coalition government led by Rosen Zeliazkov fell. Coming after seven rounds of parliamentary elections in fewer than four years, Zeliazkov’s government, made up of four parties, was sworn in at the beginning of the year. Bulgaria, which is EU’s poorest country, will join the eurozone on January 1, 2026.
The Nobel Prize Awards
The journey made by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader Corina Machado to pick up her award in Oslo, Norway, is the staff of adventure movies. The 58-year-old Machado travelled in secret for 10 hours from the capital Caracas to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. She crossed the country in disguise and managed to pass through 10 checkpoints of the army controlled by the authoritarian leftist president Nicolas Maduro, who has been hunting her for a long time. Machado then took a fishing boat, amid a rough sea and strong wind, before being met, at sea, by a vessel operated by an American NGO specialising in the extraction of people. The American forces involved in an anti-drug operation near Venezuela were informed in advance about the operation to extract Corina Machado, so as not to hit the boat carrying the Nobel laureate. Some 13 hours later, she was being taken to her flight for Oslo.
