Weekend update of European news, bringing news summaries from across the EU. This week, socialist and social democrats met in Paris, the British Chancellor struggles to justify his budget plans, and the German state election results come in.

Social Democrat and Socialist Leaders meet in Paris: French President François Hollande hosted several figures from the European left at le Palais d’Élysée on Saturday, reports France 24. Figures including German Vice-Chancellor and SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel as well as European Parliament President Martin Schulz, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Party of European Socialist Chairman Sergei Stanishev and Leader in the Parliament Gianni Pittella, as well as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras all met with the French President, Prime Minister Valls and Foreign Minister Ayrault to discuss a progressive future for Europe. Hollande warned that Europe was facing “obliteration” of it did not confront the social and economic emergency, whilst SPD leader Gabriel said that despite fears of a right-wing breakthrough in the German state elections this weekend, “We will see tomorrow that an overwhelming majority of voters will cast their ballots for democratic parties.” Vice Chancellor Gabriel also said that Germany should support the Chancellor’s policy of continuing to welcome refugees to the country. At the meeting, the group discussed several issues, including the Refugee Crisis, the economy , the threat of Brexit and the debt crisis. Alexis Tsipras said that the left had to “build a wall against economic policies that help the far-right”, as discussions turned to “putting other issues back onto the agenda. France 2 reported that the group wanted to define a new “growth agenda” for Europe. Sergei Stanishev said after the meeting “It is clear that we share the political will to change Europe, and this change will be for the best.
We – the Socialists and Democrats, our political family – are the ones to lead this positive change for the good of the people in the European Union.”

£18bn gap in the Chancellor’s budget: The FT reported on Friday that an £18bn black hole had appeared in the British Chancellor of the Exchequer’s national budget, which would have to be compensated for by further public spending cuts. The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicted only 3 months ago that the size of the British economy would be 1% larger, which will result in a shortfall in tax receipts, impacting the Chancellor’s budget. The Chancellor, George Osborne, will reveal the budget for 2016 on Wednesday, which has been widely feared to include further spending cuts, even prior to this latest revelation. The shortfall was reported by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) as likely to wipe out the Chancellor’s intended budget surplus by the end of the decade, however the Chancellor Osborne has said that he is willing to cut even deeper into public finances in order to achieve his goal. The main causes for the gap in tax receipts is lower than expected earnings, and a lack of inflation. It became clearer around Christmas that the Chancellor would not reach his public finance targets, when the ONS made revisions to the country’s headline growth rates, as well as cutting its inflation predictions and thus reducing the value of goods and services produced in Britain. Should the Chancellor miss his own fiscal rules, on the day he announces the budget he will also have to explain the reason why in Parliament, which will likely undermine his own message of his prudence in conducting government finance policy.

Nicola Sturgeon to resume independence drive in Scotland: With the Scottish parliamentary elections coming in May, Nicola Sturgeon has announced she intends to resume the drive for an independent Scotland, amid record levels of support for the Scottish National Party (SNP). The Guardian reported on Saturday that Nicola Sturgeon has promised to “turn the 45% who voted to leave the UK in the 2014 referendum into a strong and positive majority”. In Glasgow, the SNP held its spring conference, and the party leader made the call to resume fighting for independence before a 3,000 strong audience. During the speech, Sturgeon told her fellow separatists “We will achieve independence only when we persuade a majority of our fellow citizens that it is the best future for our country.” According to the polls, the SNP has left the Labour Party trailing far behind in support, with a 30-point lead as Scots go to vote in Scottish parliamentary elections in May. The initiative will be relaunched this summer, and Sturgeon said she respected those who supported the Union, and accepted that her party hadn’t made compelling enough arguments to persuade a majority. At the party’s November conference it seemed as though the independence question was being put on hold, however the party reaffirmed its commitment to fighting for an independent Scotland on Saturday, with Sturgeon saying “Patiently and respectfully, we will seek to convince you that independence really does offer the best future for Scotland.”On the subject of tax, the SNP leader told her audience that whilst they would not be cutting taxes on the highest paid as Chancellor Osborne has been doing, they will not raise them either, for that simply shifts the burden onto the lowest paid. As of April 2017, the Scottish parliament will gain control of income tax in Scotland.

Merkel’s refugee policy scrapes through relatively unscathed in Germany’s ‘Super-Sonntag’: Reporting came in from the FAZ on Sunday as Germans went to the polls in 3 states; Sachsen-Anhalt, Rheinland-Pflaz and Baden-Württemberg. A few things became clear from the results that came in on Sunday evening. Firstly, AfD managed to enter double-digit figures in all three states, raking in the best result in Sachsen-Anhalt with around 24%, according to ZDF polling. This was largely expected. Meanwhile the CDU only gained the largest vote-share in the eastern state, meanwhile losing out to the Grünen and SPD in Baden-Württemberg and Rheinland-Pfalz respectively. Nevertheless, according to FAZ predictions it seems as though the CDU may be part of coalitions in all three states, with Red-Green coalitions not getting a majority in either of the 2 western states. It seems unlikely any will even consider the AfD as a viable coalition-partner, which will result in a 3-way coalition in Sachsen-Anhalt. It was feared that this could be the case in all three states but the results have shown this won’t be the case. Some may consider it a big thing that AfD have made double-digits in all three states but they’ve only made 2-party coalition building impossible in one, which if you think about it is a less ground-breaking result than was expected. It’ll mean that they won’t make it into any of the state-governments. Of course, they now have a platform from which to deliver their message, increased legitimacy as a party and are represented in 8/16 state-assemblies. But the results could have been worse. As for the CDU, they didn’t gain anything but they didn’t lose anything either and if they form a part of the coalitions in all three states then That’s not too bad a result for them, and not a landslide defeat for Merkel’s Fluechtlingspolitik. The SPD have come off the worst in these elections, coming in 4th in both Sachsen-Anhalt and Baden-Württemberg, with only a small victory over the CDU in Rheinland-Pfalz. According to one commentator, the true impact of these results will only be felt much later, but already we can see shifts in the German electorate that may well be seen in 2017.

Sources: FT, The Guardian, FAZ, France 24,