It was an eventful year. Donald Trump’s first year in office as US President was as bad as everyone predicted it would be, if not worse, and the North Korean nuclear crisis almost reached a point of no return. On the positive side, the landslide victory of Emmanuel Macron in France’s presidential election gave the European Union a much needed boost and offered hope to all those who believe in a liberal world order.

Trump remained the same person he was during the campaign: a pathological liar and a divisive person who does not know how to be presidential. His inaugural speech, which set the tone for his presidency, was the worst I have ever heard from a US President: acrimonious, spiteful, divisive, selfish, isolationist and nationalistic.

President Trump’s introduced travel bans for a number of Muslim-majority countries, he undermined democracy by attacking the free press, calling it “fake news”, he sacked FBI director James Coney and the Justice Department opened an investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russian government to affect the election outcome.

Domestically, Trump’s only ‘achievement’ – if this is an apt description – was Congress’s approval of sweeping tax cuts which the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said would disproportionately benefit wealthier taxpayers and increase the  deficit by $1.7 trillion over 10 years.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, the world witnessed a major shift in US foreign policy under Trump. Washington placed little emphasis on human rights, multilateralism, and global US diplomacy; the State Department was depleted and the US withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Unesco. Trump also refused to continue certifying the international nuclear agreement with Iran and – contrary to international law – recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

US-Russia relations did not improve at all in 2017 and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who continued to support the Syrian regime and the rebels in eastern Ukraine, announced he would stand for re-election next year. Putin ensured that leading Opposition figure Alexei Navalny was banned from the 2018 race because of a conviction for fraud, which Navalny said was a politically motivated charge to keep him out of politics. Moscow was also accused of spreading fake news on the social media to influence a number of elections in the West.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, third from right, remained a huge threat to international peace and stability. In 2017 his regime carried out 14 missiles tests and the country’s sixth nuclear test, all in defiance of the United Nations Security Council.North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, third from right, remained a huge threat to international peace and stability. In 2017 his regime carried out 14 missiles tests and the country’s sixth nuclear test, all in defiance of the United Nations Security Council.

Tensions were high on the Korean peninsula throughout the year as North Korea carried out 14 different missiles tests in 2017, all in defiance of the United Nations Security Council. The tests included the firing of intercontinental ballistic missiles which could reach the whole of the American mainland. In September North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test, stating it had tested a hydrogen bomb. The UN imposed additional sanctions on Pyongyang in response to its tests, but this seems to have had little effect on its behaviour. Trump’s overzealous and amateurish attitude towards North Korea made a lot of people nervous.

It was a good year for Europe with a number of right-wing populist parties and candidates defeated in important elections and the eurozone economy continuing to grow steadily. The EU celebrated its 60th anniversary in Rome (under the Maltese presidency), strengthened its external borders and 25 Member State agreed to increase defence co-operation. An EU-Japan free trade deal was also signed.

The migration problem – as far as securing Europe’s borders – was largely under control, with the Turkey-EU pact remaining intact and an agreement in place with the UN-recognised Libyan government – although this latter deal was harshly criticised by human rights groups due to the way migrants were treated in Libya. On the other hand, the European Commission sued Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic at the European Court of Justice for refusing to accept asylum seekers under the EU quota system.

In The Netherlands, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, leader of the liberal VVD, was re-elected and put together a new coalition government. Support for the right-wing Freedom Party, led by Geert Wilders, shrunk towards the end of the campaign and the party had no say in the formation of a new government.

In France, the landslide victory of Emmanuel Macron against the right-wing Marie Le Pen in the presidential election was great news for Europe and changed the face of French politics. Macron’s liberal centrist party, En Marche!, in alliance with the centrist Democratic Movement, then went on to win a substantial majority of parliamentary seats.

Since his election Macron has overhauled France’s labour laws – a key platform of his presidency to create jobs – and a revamp of fiscal policy and an overhaul of public spending are in the pipeline. France under Macron has assumed a more important global role as a champion of liberal values and multilateralism, especially in view of Brexit and America’s inward looking agenda.

In the UK, Prime Minister Theresa May’s electoral gamble backfired badly.  Over-confident as a result of the polls which showed her Conservative Party leading Labour by 20 points, she believed she would win the election by a large majority.  Instead, May, who led a poor electoral campaign, lost her overall majority in Parliament and ended up heading a minority government kept in power by Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party.

Ten days after the UK election Brexit talks officially began. The EU would not start trade talks with the UK until three outstanding issues were settled: no hard border with Ireland, the protection of EU citizens’ rights in the UK and Britain’s ‘divorce bill’.  Earlier this month the two sides agreed on all three points, including a UK contribution of between €40 billion and €45 billion. Trade talks are now expected to start next March.

In Germany Angela Merkel was re-elected as Chancellor for a fourth consecutive term. Her victory was welcomed in Europe, how-ever both Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) as well as their outgoing coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD) suffered heavy losses despite Germany having a very strong economy.

Most of these votes went to the Alternative for Germany, a right-wing anti-migrant populist party, which became the first movement of its type to enter the country’s Parliament. The Social Democrats initially rejected another ‘grand coalition’ with the CDU/CSU but Merkel’s attempts to forge a pact with the pro-business Liberals and the centre-left Greens collapsed. Talks are now underway for the revival of a ‘grand coalition’.

Austria turned to the right in its general election which was won by the centre-right People’s Party, led by 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz, who adopted a hard line on immigration. Mr Kurz, Foreign Minister in the outgoing coalition with the Social Democrats, formed a coalition with the right-wing anti-immigrant Freedom Party, which increased its share of votes. Kurz assured his EU partners that the new government will be pro-European, and the Freedom Party made it clear it no longer supports a referendum on leaving the EU.

Spain faced its greatest constitutional crisis since the establishment of its democracy 40 years ago when the Catalan regional government led by Carles Puigdemont, held an independence referendum. The turnout at the poll, which had been banned by the Constitutional Court, was a low 42 per cent, and 90 per cent of those voted in favour of secession. The Catalan government then issued a unilateral declaration of independence, leading to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy imposing direct rule from Madrid, dissolving the Catalan Parliament and calling new regional elections for December 21. The pro-independence parties maintained a reduced majority of seats, and it is not clear who will form the next government.

In Italy Parliament approved a new electoral law after it received the backing of both Matteo Renzi, the leader of the ruling centre-left Democratic Party and Silvio Berlusconi, the leader of the centre-right Forza Italia. The new system is based on a mix of proportional representation and first-past-the-post constituencies and favours broad pre-election coalitions. It was opposed by the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement, which while enjoying strong support nationally, would struggle to compete in single constituencies.

Donald Trump’s first year in office as US President was as bad as everyone predicted it would be, if not worse

The big surprise of the year was Silvio Berlusconi, whose centre-right bloc won the regional elections in Sicily last month and which has bounced back in the polls. Elections will be held next March. Recently the 5 Star Movement dropped its Eurosceptic label, saying it is pro-European and in favour of EU reform.

In Romania mass nation-wide protests led the Social Democrat government to withdraw a controversial decree that would have decriminalised certain corruption offences and seen convicted officials released from prison. Iceland became the first country to elect a Green Prime Minister, Katrin Jakobsdottir, whose Leftist-Green Movement formed a coalition with two centre-right parties. In Norway the non-socialist parties led by Prime Minister Erna Solberg retained a reduced majority of seats and in the Czech Republic billionaire Andrej Babis’s ANO party (moderate eurosceptic liberals) formed a minority government.

In Poland the right-wing government’s assault on the rule of law and checks and balances continued when Parliament passed two laws that would force most of the Supreme Court into retirement and give the ruling Law and Justice Party control over judicial appointments. The European Commission then triggered Article 7 of the EU treaty against Poland, which could lead to the suspension of Poland’s EU voting rights, giving Warsaw three months to address its concerns.

In Hungary too, concerns were raised in European circles about the direction of Victor Orban’s right-wing government. Although Hungary has not advanced anywhere near as far as Poland in undermining the rule of law, attacks on NGOs and the media as well as attempts to close the Central European University founded by George Soros were considered as a direct attack of the EU’s values.

The rivalry between Shi’ite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia was definitely cause for concern in 2017. Both sides fought proxy wars in a number of countries and backed rival groups in others. The two countries fought for influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen – the latter suffering immensely from a civil war which has been going on for almost three years and which has caused a famine, an outbreak of cholera and the death of at least 10,000 people. Furthermore, the world looked on in silence as Saudi Arabia carried out indiscriminate airstrikes on Yemen.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his resignation during a visit to Riyadh, fuelling speculation he was forced to do so by his Saudi hosts because he was too accommodating towards the Shi’ite Hizbollah – but he later retracted this after the intervention of French President Macron.

Saudi King Salman appointed his son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to be the crown prince. The new heir-apparent soon established his authority and led an ‘anti-corruption’ purge of Saudi princes and senior officials, which many observers considered to be a power grab.   In Iran, the landslide re-election of President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate, was good news and was warmly welcomed in European capitals, but was ignored by Washington.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut all ties with Qatar in June, accusing it of funding Islamist extremists and being too close to Iran. After presenting Qatar with a list of demands, including shutting down the Al Jazeera news organisation and a Turkish military base, the Saudi-led bloc backed off, and asked Qatar to accept six broad principles, including a commitment to combat terrorism and extremism. However, shortly afterwards, the demands were once again on the table, which were ignored by Qatar.

The Middle East peace process went absolutely nowhere – the US was largely absent from the diplomatic scene – and President Trump appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has no diplomatic experience, as his special peace envoy for the Middle East. Trump’s exaggerated support for Israel was evident as soon as he entered the White House, and this encouraged Israel to pass a law legalising 3,800 settler homes built illegally on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. Furthermore, the US President’s irresponsible decision over Jerusalem effectively killed the peace process, and the US suffered a humiliating 14 - 1 vote at the Security Council condemning the move.

So-called Islamic State was ‘defeated’ in Syria and Iraq and no longer controls territory there, but they remained a threat throughout the year and carried out numerous car bomb and suicide attacks.  The US, Russia, Turkey, Iran and Hizbollah played a major role in IS’s defeat, and did other countries. Numerous cases of crimes against humanity were uncovered in areas liberated from IS, which has now established a foothold in Libya.

In Iraq, Masoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan regional government, resigned five weeks after an independence referendum, approved by 93 per cent of voters, backfired and sparked a crisis with Baghdad. The vote was opposed not only by Iraq but by the US, Iran, Turkey and Syria, and the Kurds were divided over how to handle the aftermath of the vote.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad survived, largely thanks to Russian military and diplomatic support, but large parts of Syria remained under the control of the Kurds and Syrian Democratic Forces. Assad’s regime continued to commit crimes against humanity, including a deadly sarin gas attack on the rebel-held north-western town of Khan Sheikhun that killed scores of people, including children, and led to US airstrikes on a Syrian air force base. According to a report by Amnesty International, 13,000 people, most of them civilian Opposition supporters, were secretly executed at a prison in Syria between September 2011 and December 2015. Meanwhile, the UN-brokered peace talks on Syria carried on at a snail’s pace and achieved very little.

Acts of jihadist terrorism unfortunately continued throughout 2017, mostly committed by Islamic State as well as by al-Qaeda, the Afghan and Pakistani Taleban, al-Shabab, Boko Haram and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Jhangv. Thousands of people were killed in these attacks, some carried out by ‘lone wolves’ with a few casualties, while others were carefully planned mass terror attacks. Attacks took place in Turkey, Pakistan, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, the Philippines, Egypt, Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Burkino Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Barcelona, Manchester, London, Stockholm, Paris and Saint Petersburg.

Christians in Egypt, Pakistan and Nigeria continued to be ruthlessly targeted by Islamist terrorists, with attacks on churches on the increase.

Turkey continued along the path of authoritarianism and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s push for an executive presidency succeeded with 51.4 per cent voting for it in a referendum.  Erdogan continued to crack down hard on anyone ‘associated’ with the failed 2016 coup, and the rule of law and freedom of the press continued to be undermined. Turkey’s hopes of joining the EU were effectively killed in 2017.

In Libya a CNN video showing men being sold as salves at an auction for $400 shocked the world and highlighted the lack of rule of law in the county. Libya remained a country with three governments in 2017: two in Tripoli (including the UN-recognised one) and one in Benghazi. In September the UN Support Mission for Libya proposed an action plan which includes the adoption of a Constitution and elections in 2018. So far only the UN-recognised government agreed to the plan.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s position was strengthened at the Communist Party Congress which voted to enshrine Xi’s name and ideology in its Constitution, elevating him to the level of founder Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. At the end of the Congress the party revealed its new senior leadership committee, the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, breaking with tradition by not including a clear successor to Xi.

South Korea elected a new liberal President, Moon Jae-in, a couple of months after the Constitutional Court upheld Parliament’s decision to impeach and dismiss President Park Geun-hye. The new President, who favours dialogue with Pyongyang, was often uncomfortable with the rhetoric coming out of the Trump White House.

Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, secured a strong mandate for his hardline position on North Korea and the possibility of revising the country’s pacifist Constitution after his Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner kept their two thirds ‘supermajority’ of seats after the country went to the polls.

In Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was elected by the country’s Parliament as Prime Minister to replace Nawaz Sharif – who was disqualified by the Supreme Court over links to the Panama Papers. He is eventually expected to be replaced by Sharif’s brother Shahbaz.

Spain faced its greatest constitutional crisis when the Catalan regional government held an independence referendum

In Afghanistan the war dragged on with attacks by the Taleban and Islamic State becoming more daring. In 2017 only 60 per cent of Afghan territory was under the control of the government, with 30 per cent contested and the remaining 10 per cent under the control or influence of the Taleban.

In Myanmar, ethnic cleansing on a large scale took place against the country’s Muslim Rohingyas and 650,000 of them fled to Bangladesh, leading the UN too say that acts of genocide may have taken place by Myanmar’s security forces.

Venezuela under the doctrinaire left-wing President Nicolás Maduro continued to slide into dictatorship and economic collapse. In order by-pass the Opposition-controlled National Assembly Maduro set up a new rival Constituent Assembly after an election boycotted by the Opposition, which foreign observers said was flawed.  The new Constituent Assembly then stripped the National Assembly of its legislative powers, assuming them for itself. The main Opposition parties were banned from taking part in next year’s presidential election on the grounds that they had not taken part in mayoral elections. The European Parliament awarded the Opposition and the country’s political prisoners the EU’s top human rights award, the Sakharov prize.

In Chile, centre-right Sebastián Piñera was elected President, confirming a trend in other South American nations in turning to the right. Ecuador, however, seems to have defied this trend with the election of Socialist Lenin Moreno.  In Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández of the right-wing National Party was declared the winner of the country’s bitterly contested presidential election, which many believed was flawed, leading to calls for a new vote from the Organisation of American States.

New Zealand got its youngest woman Prime Minister when Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, 37, formed a coalition government with the small New Zealand First party.

There was good news in Zimbabwe following the ouster of President Robert Mugabe by the military. Mugabe, who brought his country to economic collapse, made a mockery of the rule of law, oppressed the Opposition and cheated in elections, decided to step down after impeachment proceedings began against him in Parliament. He was replaced as President by Emmerson Mnangagwa, who he had sacked as vice president in order for his wife Grace Mugabe to assume the presidency.  Celebrations greeted Mugabe’s departure but only time will tell whether a better chapter has really begun in Zimbabwe.

It was not a good year for democracy in Kenya. President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner in the country’s second election in three months, after he won 98 per cent of the vote with a turnout of 38 per cent. The second poll was ordered by the Supreme Court after it overturned Kenyatta’s victory in the first election, citing irregularities. Opposition candidate Raila Oding did not participate in the re-run election, saying it would be marred by the same flaws. Scores of people were killed in election-related violence.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo 1.7 million people were forced to flee their homes due to a number of conflicts. Aid agencies said that for the second consecutive year the country is the worst affected by conflict displacement in the world. President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled for 16 years, once again delayed calling a presidential vote, even though the Independent National Electoral Commission set December 23 as a date for the election.  Mr Kabila failed to step down in December 2016, when his mandate expired.

In 2017 two great European statesmen died:  Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the father of German unification who played a key role in European integration and former Portuguese Prime Minister and President Mario Soares, the father of his country’s democracy who spearheaded the country’s entry into the European Union.

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