Goodbye, 2025! Honestly, it wasn't a pleasure.
It's hard to believe another year has come and gone, and what a year it was! Think of it as a dumpster fire, a year most of us wished we could have skipped, perhaps by joining astronauts Suni Williams or Butch Wilmore in space. They managed to dodge almost three months of the chaos by extending their stay in space to nearly 10 months.
Upon their return, they were greeted with the news: "Welcome back, guys. There's good news and bad news: the good news is you’re home safe and sound; the bad news is Kamala Harris didn’t win the election."
And this is the part most people miss... Donald Trump dominated the news, similar to how a bear would dominate the honey section in a supermarket. He imposed tariffs on nearly everything, even uninhabited islands near Antarctica. He also had a spectacular falling out with Elon Musk.
Europe experienced its own set of oddities. Germany replaced Olaf Scholz with Friedrich Merz. France and Italy swapped roles, with Italy surprisingly stable while France became a political whirlwind, cycling through Prime Ministers at an alarming rate. At the time of writing, even Eric Cantona was holding the office!
In Brussels, Ursula von der Leyen has been about as popular as unwanted invasive surgery and survived not one but three confidence votes in the European Parliament, which these days leans so far to the right that it’s in danger of collapse.
But it wasn't all bad news. The new Pope seems to be a good one, and António Costa is doing a much better job as European Council president than Charles Michel did. Even a discarded Exki sandwich wrapper would have outperformed Michel.
So, let's look forward to 2026!
QUOTE OF THE YEAR: "It’s a shitty sign for European majorities, it is a shitty sign for Europe, it is shitty for the fight against climate change." Greens group co-leader Terry Reintke was not pleased with the EU’s conservatives teaming up with the far right in the European Parliament.
Who's been up?
- I kissed a PM: Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry are officially dating. There’s hope for everyone, folks.
- The survivalist: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen managed to survive a total of three no-confidence motions this year.
Who's been down?
- U.S.-EU relations: Vice President JD Vance doesn’t seem to like the EU. At the Munich Security Conference, he took a swing at European democracies, insisting their biggest threat isn’t Russia but their own culture wars. With friends like these …
- Royal titles: Prince Andrew is now known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. His brother Charlie also cut his public funding.
Backhanded award for outstanding use of political chaos in a democracy
What a year it’s been for Marine Le Pen and French politics. Le Pen was banned from running for office for five years. But she is no quitter, especially with right-hand man Barbie Bardella waiting — a tad too eagerly — in the wings to pick up the mantle. All she needed was for the French electorate to get distracted by fresher scandals and let her quietly plot her comeback.
Enter: President Emmanuel Macron and a case study for confident-straight-white-men-bordering-on-delusion syndrome. He burned through prime ministers faster than Samantha Jones cycled through boyfriends, seemingly baffled each time one bailed. It’s almost cute that he never once considered he might be the problem.
Maybe it is time for a woman president to bring stability to France after all.
CAPTION COMPETITION OF THE YEAR
“He’s coming! Quick, be a statue.” by Willem Callens.
What are your thoughts on these events? Do you agree with the assessment of 2025? Share your opinions in the comments!
